


Unknown Complication

by Legendsofkrypton



Series: Plot Ideas That May Grow [2]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Follows BL2 closely for some time, Handsome Jack is the good guy?, He's still dangerous, Jack is a good dad, M/M, No Krieg, Vault Hunters are the bad guys?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:08:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24079537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legendsofkrypton/pseuds/Legendsofkrypton
Summary: There wasn't just five Vault Hunters on Pandora when Handsome Jack hired them, there was one unknown that Jack hadn't worked into his plans, a nanotechnician with a smart mouth and not enough fear.
Relationships: Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands)
Series: Plot Ideas That May Grow [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737202
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This is a bit of a work in progress with a few changes to the storyline because I've watched a bunch of gameplay movies, there are a few things that need to be noted:   
> \- Jack is NOT the bad guy of this story, he's still an asshole, but he's not the villain because for some reason I have fallen in love with the maniac.  
> \- Angel NEVER dies.  
> \- This is an OC-centric story  
> \- Zer0 is going to remain silent because I have no idea how to write Haiku's  
> \- I'm trying to make sure that my OC isn't a Mary-Sue, if anyone had any problems with the character, please let me know.

“So why are we stuck riding a train rather than being given fast travel co-ordinates?” A females voice spoke up with a hint of petulance from her voice, she didn’t even bother to sit up from where she had draped herself over the train seats, her head dangling over the edge so that she looked over at one of the other females on the train.

Gaige grinned down at AJ and she poked her tongue out at the slightly older girl, she caught the ‘adults’ of the carriage as they all rolled their eyes at the two of them, the other four had taken to being anti-social since they had started their journey towards Opportunity to talk with Handsome Jack about the Vault Hunter gig that they had all signed up for.

“We’re riding a train because Handsome Jack says that we are to ride the train, now shut it” Axton spoke up from where he was sat at the front working on a bit of mechanics, the turret that was classed as his main ‘skill sets’

AJ knew that they all had their own skillsets, it was why they had been approached by Handsome Jack to search for the Vault of Pandora when no one else had been successful.

There was Axton, who had gained the reputation for his pop-up Turret that destroyed the enemies in his path, Salvador, the Gunzerker that had a flawless experience with multiple weapons of mass destruction at one time. Zer0, the assassin that no one knew anything about because he just spoke in Haiku’s or used his faceplate to show emoticons, Maya the Siren, one of the six to exist at one time, who could phase-lock her enemies, Gaige, the teenage engineer that could create a death robot with a wave of her hand, and then there was AJ, AJ had once heard about Lady Aurelia Hammerlock possibly using nanotech to aid in the creation and manipulation of ice, AJ had delved into that as a child and was able to create and manipulate fire.

Except, she had to be careful with using it too much, the nanotech worked with her but heated up quickly because she couldn’t get to a place that had the equipment, she needed to enhance it.

“Sir yes sir, Mr. Commando sir” Gaige chirped sarcastically before she high-fived AJ from where they were both sat laughing softly, even Maya and Salvador cracked a small grin at the disgruntled look on the Commando’s face, a grinning emoticon appearing on Zer0’s faceplate.

Axton growled under his breath and stood up, turning to face the two girls who noticed his change in body language, Gaige instantly stood up while AJ pushed off the chair and rolled backward until she was on her feet next to the younger girl. Soon they were joined by Maya and Salvador who each got up to help calm the situation rather than cause danger.

The commando went to speak before he heard something go bang on the train, which brought the group of six to a halt as they turned behind them, the glaring ‘Welcome Vault Hunters’ sign, catching their interest before it seemed to drop of its own accord and revealed ‘To Your Doom’ behind it, followed by the appearance of Loader Bots.

The small group looked at each other before separating into different directions as more bots appeared to destroy them, Gaige and AJ stuck together as Gaige set off her ‘Deathtrap’ as AJ ignored her nanobots, the fire would do nothing against them as she grabbed her favorite pistol and began to aim for their eyes.

By the time they had dispatched the Loaders, Gaige and AJ darted down the train to where Maya and Axton were stood with Salvador, the bits and pieces of bots were strewn everywhere and AJ wanted nothing more than to start to pick them apart to see if the Hyperion tech could be useful to her, and she could see Gaige itching to do the same. But instead, they continued down the train, Gaige yelped at the sudden appearance of Zer0 behind them as he dropped from the roof.

“Stay sharp” Axton muttered to the rest of them as they moved towards the door, the commando kicking it down to enter the drivers’ part of the train.

Maya took a small step back as she took in the scene in front of them, it was pretty obvious that there was no human driving the train, metal protruding from the thing in the chair, and then came the voice as the chair started to turn, the dynamite around it making the whole group start to feel uneasy as they backed away.

“It’s cute that y’all think you’re the heroes of this little adventure but you’re not.” The mechanic voice of Handsome Jack spoke from the bot, the chair turning completely to show a huge ass bomb strapped to its chest. “Welcome to Pandora kiddos”

“Run” Axton ordered as they started down the train, the explosion sending them hurtling forward as AJ’s nanotech sprung up alongside Maya’s phase-lock to make sure that the explosion didn’t kill them all. AJ hissed in pain as the nanotech heated up and began to burn the underneath of her glove controllers and her palms while they held on for their dear lives so that they didn’t die as the train cart flew off the rails and into the icy depths below.

\- - -

“Great… another set of dead Vault Hunters, Handsome Jack’s been busy” A new mechanical voice spoke from in front of AJ, the cold making her shiver but giving her enough relief from the pain of her wrist. “Wait a minute! You’re not dead!”

A weak hand on her shoulder made AJ frown in confusion, her eyes fluttering open weakly to look at Axton who was watching her with concern, Salvador and Maya were pushing themselves up from where they had landed while Gaige was hidden under AJ and stirring. There was blood dripping down AJ’s right eyes which led to her weakly using the snow to clear it away as Axton helped her off of Gaige.

“Looks like you used your body as a shield” Axton mumbled to both girls who looked at each other and smiled, but the smile soon to a grimace as they looked at the weird robot in front of them, a shovel in its hand as it watched the six of them as Zer0 suddenly popped up from a pile of snow that caused Gaige to giggle weakly.

“Yes! Now I can get off this stinking glacier! Claptrap your metaphorical ship has finally come in!”

Maya grimaced at the sound of the robot’s voice and most of them seemed to agree with her as they flinched as it spoke. AJ seemed to react the worst to the Claptrap and only refrained from attacking it due to Axton giving her a stern look and the fact that she couldn’t find her pistol.

The robot seemed to be happy as it spoke, wheeling itself around on the snow as they all climbed up from the floor, Axton supported AJ while Salvador allowed Maya to lean against him, Gaige moved so that she was between AJ and Maya and Zer0 took up the rear as they watched the robot. None of them knew exactly where they were so hopefully the idiot robot could help them.

“Allow me to introduce myself! I am a CL4P-TP steward bot –“The bot was about to continue until AJ made a noise of disbelief

“Whoa whoa… weren’t you all destroyed?” she spoke up in annoyance, her annoyance grew as the bot ignored her and continued to speak.

“My friends call me Claptrap, or they would if any of them were still alive. Or had existed in the first place!... oh! I have something you lot could use!”

AJ grumbled in annoyance, cursing the robot out under her breath, she flinched at the sudden flare of pain in the back of her head from Axton who had caught on to what she was saying, although, a glance to her left told her that he was also surprised that he had actually rebuked her rather than ignoring her as he had on the train.

Claptrap turned away from them for a moment and started to look through a pile of parts that had been buried beneath the snow that he had earlier placed there, he picked one or two things up before moving to other piles and then heading back to the group and handing them ECHO communicators.

AJ and Gaige instantly looked through it and the both of them grimaced at how outdated and banged up they were, the little GPS map was useful, especially since it would interact with the satellites around Pandora to inform them where they were. Both girls knew that they would be editing the communicators the moment that they had their hands tools.

“Come, come, friend, let’s get you inside” Claptrap spoke up as he started to wheel away from them.

“Hey! Wait up clunkers! Do you have any hypo’s around here? Maybe weapons?” Salvador spoke up gruffly, which made the robot stop for a moment.

“There are crates from the wreckage all around this place like I said, Handsome Jack’s been busy” He then continued to wheel away, leaving the six of them dumbfounded.

Gaige was the one who was least injured, followed by Zer0 and Salvador. “How about we go search and you three go and follow the unit?” Gaige offered carefully as she looked over the group, she was surprised when Axton nodded and started to aid AJ after the robot, his voice traveling through the blizzard.

As they followed after the bot, the three injured party members ignored the grating voice until there was a yelp from nearly all of them as a voice appeared in their minds and the image of a woman appeared in front of them, Axton tightened his grip a little on AJ as he felt her stiffen at the appearance of the woman.

“I’ll explain everything soon, but know this… you’re alive for a reason and I am here to help you” The voice spoke carefully, no malice in her tone as Claptrap called them to hurry up, the three carefully continued as the woman disappeared from their sights.

“That was… different” Maya spoke quietly as they limped through the blizzard after Claptrap, his voice making AJ want to shoot the little thing until it was just a scrap of parts on the ice floor.

“It was intruding” AJ grumbled under her breath, she winced lightly at a pain shooting through her chest and was glad that Axton was helping, otherwise, she probably wouldn’t have even made it halfway.

The three of them all slumped in relief as they caught sight of a bunker, the urge to kill Claptrap washing over AJ once more at the patronizing about being able to walk short distances without dying, she grumbled under her breath again and ignored the snort from Maya.

“Heads up” Gaige called out as she jogged over to their group along with Zer0 who seemed to glide along behind her, she smiled as she injected a hypo into AJ’s side, a groan of appreciation escaped her as she felt a hypo-health rush through her. They were expensive on many planets, but Pandora was one of the few that actually had a lot of them, mainly because Dr. Zed was a Pandoran citizen and needed his machines there, knowing he could get the money from Bandits and Psycho’s alike.

“You are a lifesaver Gaige, you too Zer0” AJ smiled at them and was glad to see Salvador strolling from behind them, all three of them started handing them some ammunition as soon as they knew that Axton and Maya were also healed.

“We got some money too; we’ll share it out once we’ve set up camp for the night” Salvador grunted and scowled a little at the sound of Claptrap calling for them to follow him. “Do we have to follow this bot? his voice is annoying”

“We won’t have to follow him long” AJ smirked and let out a small whine of annoyance as Axton tapped the back of her head again “There was a reason the Claptrap units were killed off! I remember them from when I was a kid and they were the most annoying pieces of junk, Handsome Jack upgraded things to remove the need for them, so he set off a code that destroyed the units, they were all supposed to be gone”

Axton rolled his eyes before he ignored her protests and started after the unit again, Gaige also seemed to be against AJ’s views on the robots as well, so followed after their self-appointed leader into the units’ home. AJ pouted before following behind the other three, she heard a shout and ran down the corridor, watching in disbelief as a giant bullymong disappeared through the ceiling and claptrap fell from the heightened stage part of his home, missing an eye.

“Claptrap, you said that you have pistols hidden around here somewhere?” Gaige asked him in a hurry, just in case the bullymong appeared again, although she also went to check to make sure he was okay while AJ brushed it off and looked around the place with curiosity.

All these bodies and no good guns, Pandora was just as bad as her father told her growing up.

“Check the cabinets around here, take as much ammunition and health as you need” Claptrap spoke up as the group started to check the cabinet’s, AJ let out a noise of success as she found a pistol, she turned the gun over in her hand and grimaced at what gun it was, she wished she had her own trusty pistol rather than a Dahl gun. At least she knew Axton would be happy.

“Is it only Dahl crap that you have Craptrap?” AJ called out and ignored the glare that was sent her way.

“There’s a difference? I just liked the look of that one gun” Claptrap spoke up, not catching the annoyance in the nineteen-year old’s voice, or the butchering of his name as he had heard worse.

The group all froze once again as the woman appeared in their minds; AJ backed up until she landed on one of the couches that Claptrap had around his home, she didn’t want to be too disoriented by having something speak up in her head.

“Once upon a time, four Vault Hunters changed Pandora forever” AJ bit back the reaction she wanted to give as the woman continued “But their time has passed… thanks to Handsome Jack. Pandora needs a new set of heroes. I know those heroes are you”

“Is she going to do that often?” Maya sighed to AJ as she held her hand out to the younger woman, AJ took her hand and winced a little as she was pulled up, she checked the gloves that she wore and grimaced as she noticed that the one health hypo hadn’t done anything to the burns from her nano-tech, it was an unfortunate consequence of her tech and their outdated systems, but she didn’t want to waste another one.

While Maya walked away, and Gaige looked like she wanted to look after the claptrap unit, AJ started going through the areas more thoroughly to try and find some tools and parts that she and Gaige could use for tinkering when they made camp.

“Hey kid, we’re heading out!” Salvador called out as he pocketed some cash that he had found, he caught AJ’s gaze and shrugged “not as he needs it, we can use it for ammo since he wants us to help him get to Sanctuary”

Scrunching her nose in distaste, AJ sighed as she grabbed a small pouch full of parts and tools and hooked it to her belt, she really didn’t want to head to Sanctuary, but it meant a job until she could get off Pandora. Vault Hunting for Handsome Jack was one thing but working for the Raiders was a whole other thing. She packed away her stuff and jogged to catch up to the others, she caught up to them and stood behind the group waiting for the bot to open the door for them to leave his home.

“Zer0 found some bedrolls for us to use when we aren’t near any buildings, hopefully, we can get to a town soon to pick up rations so that we’re not stuck eating bullymong” Gaige informed AJ and grinned as the older girl gave her a glance of parts in her pouch “Also, Axton thinks you’re a pampered brat for hating Dahl”

The adults – minus Axton – all snorted at Gaige throwing their ‘leader’ under the bus as she did, the only thing Gaige did was give him an innocent smile in return while AJ rolled her eyes.

“I have my reasons for preferring Hyperion make, just like he has his reasons for preferring Dahl” AJ shrugged uncaring of his opinion of her, she had been using Hyperion guns since she had learned how to shoot, she found them reliable for her, and when they weren’t she knew the specs enough to work with them until she made them work. She’d learned the basic specs of a Hyperion gun as a young teenager, and that was what most guns were based on; she got her dad’s smarts when it came to coding and engineering, teaching her was the only thing that kept him sane after her mother left.

“Let me know if I’m gonna run into anything!” Claptrap declared as he headed off in front of them and AJ quickly covered Gaige’s mouth as she noticed the bot about to hit a wall “Ugh… I’ll just assume you didn’t see that”

All but Gaige and Zer0 snickered at the bot as they headed forward, however, Zer0 did put up a laughing face on his screen. AJ was very curious about how long it would take before Gaige also grew annoyed by the Claptrap unit, it would probably be a while since Gaige was a huge fan of bots.

Sticking at the back of the group, cautious of anything blindsiding them, AJ was glad to note that she could barely hear the bot as they walked, although she did snigger every time that he crashed tripped over something.

She yelped once again as the woman appeared but this time the group of them continued walking, knowing that she would probably stop speaking if there was any danger coming towards them, AJ mock gagged to herself as she was told she would be safe at Sanctuary, but only Axton noticed her reaction and frowned in confusion.

“Incoming!” Axton called out as the group suddenly took defensive positions, a small group of bullymongs heading towards them from the top of the walls ahead of them, there were three altogether, so they all teamed up with another to remove the threat. Thankfully they didn’t use much ammunition. AJ wanted to make a remark about the Dahl pistols but knew it wouldn’t go over well with Axton so, for once, she kept her mouth shut.

Gaige yelped lightly as she braced herself, the floor underneath them shaking like mad, they all tuned in to Claptrap’s muttered complaints about Jack drilling and causing the earthquakes and then the bot made a mom joke and AJ instantly had her pistol drawn at the bot in annoyance until Axton grabbed the barrel of the gun and pushed it down with force.

“I may not like my mom, but I don’t accept jokes about her” AJ grumbled with a glare at Axton before she tugged her gun free of his grasp and walked off towards the edge of the cliff, thankful for the braces that aided them in dropping from heights without injury.

She sat on one of the rocks at the bottom, her head in her hands as the woman appeared again and spoke about going to Sanctuary and resisting Jack. She bunched some snow up and threw it across from her angrily as the woman spoke, she would be safe off-planet, she could always travel to Promethea or Eden-6.

A shout surprised her before she started laughing at the sight of Claptrap stuck in the snow, unfortunately, the sound of Claptrap’s shout drew more bullymongs from their lair, so AJ had to start shooting, along with the others as they dropped down beside her. She pouted as Gaige released the poor bot and started towards more of the crates that had managed to survive the train wrecks over the months or years that Handsome Jack had been luring Vault Hunters to their deaths.

The biggest surprise of the day was when their echo comms suddenly came to life, and a familiar voice came through the speakers, causing the small group to freeze and stare down at the call.

“Hey kiddo’s, Jack here. President of Hyperion?” AJ snorted and covered her mouth to keep from laughing even though Jack faltered briefly at being laughed at “Let me explain how things work here… Vault Hunter shows up, Vault Hunter looks for the new Vault. Vault Hunter dies. By me. You seein’ the problem here? You’re still alive. So if you could just do me a favor and off yourself, that’d be great. Thanks, Pumpkin… oh, and laugh at me again and I’ll rip your throat out”

“Now how would you rip my throat out, if I’ve already off’d myself, _pumpkin_?” One thing that her father could never get rid of, no matter how stern he was, was AJ’s smart mouth, and she had probably been away from home far too long since she wasn’t even phased by the prospect of gaining the wrath of someone like Jack. Probably because he blew up the bloody train and caused her to lose her favorite pistol. “Looks like you’re having a few… issues. Chow princess”

AJ quickly disconnected the call before he could start shouting and threatening her and hesitated to turn around to look at her team, she winced at the stormy expression on Axton’s face while the others just looked at her in shock, even Claptrap had gone silent. “He tried to blow us up! And we lost all out gear because of that jackass, plus I lost my pistol and it wasn’t just any pistol! That was the pistol that I’ve worked on for near two years to perfect!”

“You just… you just insulted and hung up on Handsome Jack” Gaige pointed out weakly before she startled as Axton moved forward.

“Let’s get outta here before he decides to shoot a cannon at us from Helios” Axton ordered gruffly, the whole team wincing as they sensed the anger in his voice.

“Minion! That was awesome!” Claptrap declared but AJ just ignored the bot as she followed after Axton, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach at the fact that she’d pissed off Handsome Jack without thinking and also Axton. But she had no idea what Axton could do in response, she wasn’t a little kid, nor was she classed as his underling in an army.

She knew all the horror stories about what the higher-ranked soldiers could do to ‘discipline’ disobedient soldiers, and she was glad that she never had to join an army like Dahl, she would have been killed within days.

“Oh! My eye just switched back on! I can see tough-looking minions and a handsome robot” They all stiffened and moved into defensive positions once more at the declaration “Which means, whoever has my eye is very close”

Gaige quickly ushered Claptrap back to the container that they had used as a way to climb the cliff as Knuckle Dragger appeared above them, they all dove away as a car suddenly came flying towards them, Claptrap’s eye was lit around the giants’ neck. The small group immediately started shooting at the monster, cursing at the weakness of the guns against her hide, it only got worse as its own minions started to appear from the walls but thankfully with the six of them working together, they were able to kill the beast.

Cocking her head to the side, AJ spotted a gun underneath the beast and made a small noise of disbelief at the Dahl branding again “Hey Ax, got a corrosive gun here, you want it? It’s Dahl again”

Axton moved to AJ as the others picked up the loot that they had managed to unearth at the beasts' death, he clapped her on the shoulder and took the gun from her curiously “Maybe Gaige would be better off with this?”

“That because she’s the youngest or because you honestly think she’d prefer it?” AJ muttered softly in question as they looked over at the mechromancer who had picked up Claptraps eye and was trying to convince him to let her or AJ fix it.

“You already know the answer to that” Axton shrugged lightly as he took the gun from her and moved to where Gaige was, handed it to the youngster who grinned brightly at him and then grinned over at AJ before mouthing a ‘thank you’ to her.

A sudden hand on her shoulder made her jump as Zer0 appeared and held out a different pistol to her, this one was still Dahl which made her grimace, but at least it was a better make than the one she currently had. “Thank you Zer0” A nod and a smile emoticon appeared in response as the silent assassin left the young woman to her own devices.

“We’re heading out, apparently Claptrap has a friend in a town nearby that can fix his eye” Axton called out and allowed the robot to lead the way once more. The only reason that AJ was okay with going to Sanctuary, was because they could finally get rid of Claptrap, she didn’t want to risk the robot growing on her.

Rather than running around the ramp, AJ jumped and pulled herself up onto the ledge with a small grin at Gaige as the brunette hugged her for giving her the gun rather than keeping it for herself. “Oh cool, Hyperion barge, maybe they have some Hyperion guns” AJ hoped as she rocked on the balls of her feet, watching Claptrap attempt, and fail, to open the door

AJ stiffened and shifted lightly as the voice spoke up and helped open the doors to the barge, there was just something off-putting about someone speaking in your mind and making you see things, she had a feeling that she wasn’t the only one to think that either. The offer to take whatever they needed made AJ grin and moved ahead of the group so that they could loot the place to gain better weapons and more ammo and cash.

Although, she sighed when she realized that there was no Hyperion weapon inside the barge, just a Jakobs shotgun. “Hey Sal, you’d prefer a shotgun?”

“That’s right lass!” Salvador grinned as he looked around, after he got the go-ahead from the others, he grabbed the shotgun and holstered it to his back before collecting the ammunition in the mini armory.

“Do we all have favorite types of guns then?” AJ couldn’t help but ask curiously as they started towards the other side of the barge, they were all beginning to lag now, exhaustion washing over them, hopefully, there being a town meant that they could rest for the night. “We didn’t really converse much on the train…”

“I prefer rifles” Gaige shrugged as they moved carefully through the barge “Pistols are fine but I manage rifles better with my arm”

“Pistols work better for me since I can use one hand with them, while I use my powers with the other” Maya added without looking away from where they were heading. Zer0 didn’t even bother answering, he just played with the sword strapped to his back while Salvador indicated the shotgun as well as pointed to Gaige at her answer.

“Same as Salvador, Rifles and shotguns” Axton answered as he realized that AJ had set her attentions on him for an answer “And you, brat?”

“One, rude” AJ commented but didn’t fight the smile at seeing the Commando relax enough to tease her “And two, I prefer pistols and sniper rifles. Especially when I can get my hands on the elemental weapons, fire is the thing I work with best.”

The door to the other side of the barge had them all hesitate for a moment as Claptrap kept talking, he didn’t even notice when people weren’t listening, he just kept nattering on about useless drivel. Although the warning about Captain Flynt made the group become on edge, they really needed to find out what the distance between destinations was so that they could plan rations and camps.

AJ started to feel sorry for Claptrap as he spoke about Captain Flynt torturing him, she wished that she didn’t dislike him so much, but she still did, although the progress was that she didn’t think that the bot deserved what he had been put through.

Gaige face-palmed as Claptrap suddenly disappeared from in front of them, they ran to the edge and sighed as they noticed that he hadn’t paid attention and fell to the next ledge, without even glancing between them, the small group followed the annoying robot until they reached the bottom of the cliff.

A sharp noise made them look at their Echo’s again, and they realized that Handsome Jack was talking again, however, the adults were relieved to note that it wasn’t a two-way call, it was a broadcast.

“Attention people of Pandora! Handsome Jack here, offering a million bucks to whoever brings me the head of the Vault Hunters who just arrived in Liar’s Berg. And I’m still offering a reward for Roland, the mass-murdering leader of the Crimson Raiders. Finally, there is one Vault Hunter I want alive! Female bandit, black hair with blue and yellow in it, if she dies before I get the opportunity to kill her myself then whoever kills her will have their intestines ripped out through their throat! Ehm… Good hunting”

The Vault Hunters all turned to AJ who shrunk down a little, maybe sassing the man wasn’t the best plan.

Fortunately, bullymongs began to appear at the entrance to the town, which gave them a distraction as they removed the threats, unfortunately, Captain Flynt decided to follow up the announcement with his own, ordering his men to grab them and take them to him.

AJ ducked away from the looks that Axton was giving her as Claptrap called for his friend to open the town for them, they all grimaced as they realized, they still had a bit of fighting to go before they could rest for the night. At his request, the group dispatched the town of bandit’s and moved through to the man’s home, AJ let out a chuckle as the man allowed Claptrap to get electrocuted before switching the gate off.

As the group watched the bot twitch, waiting for Hammerlock to arrive, AJ pulled out her Echo and hesitated before typing into it.

**AJ: They have our personal comm numbers because you are doing this, right Ms. AI?**

She didn’t even need to press send before the message was deleted automatically and a new one received immediately.

**4NG3L: That is correct. It is better for stealth.**

AJ: How much does Handsome Jack want to kill me? I assume you are able to tell.

**4NG3L: …I hope that you do not meet the end of his temper. Now pay attention to your new allies.**

AJ nodded lightly to herself as she placed her comm away and watched as the dude in hunter gear with equal cybernetic limbs as human limbs, shoved the eye into the robot’s head, none too gently. She startled as she noticed that she must have missed something.

“What?” she asked dumbly.

“You are the young lady that Jack wants personally?” Hammerlock stated curiously, obviously, he didn’t know why, which was good since Jack would probably want her in a lot more pain if her sass was overheard by his subjects rather than just the group and him.

“And you are the brother of Baroness Aurelia Hammerlock” AJ retorted and smirked lightly as she noticed him look at her startled, she lifted her hand up and waved it carefully, to allow the smallest amount of nanotech to escape to set off a flame. “I used the rumors of what your sister does, as a way to create my nanotech, she’s a despicable woman, I won’t lie… I’m surprised that you seem so well adjusted considering you had to grow up with her, but yeah…”

“Well, that shuts me up then doesn’t it… I might as well turn on the main power now that the town is clear” Hammerlock took off at a brisk jog as he made his way through the town, AJ hesitated before sighing and following after the group, she thought she saw a vending machine for guns but if there was no power then it wouldn’t work.

She followed after the group before groaning as she realized that she could have stayed behind since they were turning the power on anyway, with a huff, AJ moved back to where Hammerlock’s home was and looked at the machine, grinning as she sold her pistol for the ‘item of the day’ Hyperion Leverage pistol.

“Hey AJ, we’re going to quickly clear out bullymongs and then Axton decided we’re going to use one of the buildings to camp out before setting off tomorrow” Gaige called to her as she made her way to her friend, she also hooked a shield to her belt with a small grin “Hammerlock gave us a shield for getting rid of the bandits”

With a nod of understanding, the older girl followed her friend, the two of them taking one of the spots that Gaige pointed out, Axton and Maya teaming up at another area while Zer0 and Sal were elsewhere. “It’s a good thing there are a few of us huh?” AJ asked with a grin as she started to shoot at the blasted bullymongs, she hated some creatures, they annoyed her.

The last bullymong hit the floor and AJ sagged a little in relief, she watched in confusion as Gaige moved forward and started to cut the hair from the creatures that hit the floor “What are you doing?”

“Pillows… we can use old shirts or something, and just fill them with Bullymong fur, if we make them small enough for our heads but also small enough to sit on our packs, then we have pillows for our journey to Sanctuary.” Gaige explained before sending a message to the others to do the same, AJ shrugged and followed her lead before heading to the building next to the ‘bounty board’.

“Good idea kid” Axton praised Gaige carefully and smiled a little at the way the girl seemed to get a little younger right in front of them because of the praise. “Hammerlock said this place is safe enough for us to stay for the night, and there are rations in Zed’s machines so we should be safe. AJ, do you want a rifle? Hammerlock had two spares and gave us them for clearing the place, Maya had one”

“Nah Ax, I bought a pistol, I’m fine with that for now, we’ll get some loot as we head towards wherever we’re going next”

The group all nodded before they bid ‘goodnight’ to the hunter and Claptrap and headed into the building to sleep, each of them made up a small pillow of bullymong hair and set up sleeping quarters, AJ and Gaige curling up on a bed together as the men took the floor and Maya fell asleep propped up against a wall.

The next morning, AJ was the first one to wake, after untangling herself from Gaige, she carefully left the main room and used the bathroom before slipping out of the building and watching one of the many sunrises of the planet’s day. She winced as she slipped her gloves off her hand used the snow underneath her to ease the sting that still shot through her from time to time, she looked around her carefully before she tugged up her right sleeve and frowned at the blue markings that swirled around her wrist.

A noise from the building startled her as she dropped the sleeve and continued to care for the burns, a hypo was held out to her from beside her which made her look and find Axton next to her.

“Why haven’t you used a hypo before now? Those burns look pretty bad, holding a pistol must be hell” Axton questioned as he eyed the wounds and was glad to see her use the hypo rather than argue with him.

“I’m used to the burns” She shrugged as she took out some tools she’d stolen from Claptrap’s home so that she could start to repair her gloves enough that she could use the flames for longer than ten seconds without being in pain, she’d work on the Echo and encrypt it next. “My tech has the disadvantage of burning up if I use it for too long at a time, I haven’t had the chance to upgrade it in a few months to allow me to compensate for the heat”

Axton nodded lightly in understanding as they sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the town around them, it looked peaceful but both of them knew that that was far from the truth.

“Speaking back to Handsome Jack was a bad idea” Axton spoke up, there was a bit of scolding and disappointment in his tone which made AJ freeze for a moment before continuing to touch up the gloves.

“My dad always told me I gained the best of both my parents, but also had the misfortune to gain his smart mouth” AJ spoke softly as she put the panels back onto her gloves to protect the wiring of the controls, she winced slightly as she carefully removed a small object from behind her ear, the aid helped her hear in that ear but also helped her control the nanotech. She wasn’t completely deaf in that ear, but she did have trouble, ever since she had been kidnapped by psycho’s and hit a bit too hard. “No one has ever been able to control it, not even him and he’s probably the scariest guy I have ever met, he’d never hurt me, but if someone else hurt me then he would kill them without a second thought. That’s the payment for being born on Pandora, lack of morality. I can’t promise it won’t happen again Axton, something about him just rubs me wrong.

“But the thing is… I’m also not going to promise to watch my mouth around the Crimson Raiders either, I’ve grown up with so many stories, many truthful and many made up, but they all revolve around the fact that the crimson raiders are the ones to create Handsome Jack as the ‘villain’ of the story. If there’s a Vault to find then I’ll join the hunt because that’s the fun of Vault Hunting, but I’ll be part of this crew, not the Raiders, never the Raiders”

“What are the stories?” Axton questioned curiously, he was thankful that he, and apparently AJ, were early risers compared to the others. He was a Dahl soldier prior to Vault Hunting, running from his cheating ex-wife and the company he just couldn’t deal with anymore, although, he did like their guns. He wasn’t judgemental of other companies anymore, and really, it was stories that caused misconceptions of people.

“In a way, he was a Vault Hunter himself, before he became CEO of Hyperion though force. He fought to protect Helios and was fired by the former CEO because he didn’t like how it was handled even though he wasn’t given help. Apparently Jack was betrayed by those he trusted, rumors say it was the other Vault Hunters looking for that specific vault, others say it was a family of his that’s never been confirmed and others say that it was the Raiders which is why he’s so hell-bent on seeing them dead. The rumor that, is said, would get anyone killed if he heard it spoken, is that the Vault Hunter Lilith is the reason for the mask… my family doesn’t believe in rumors, but my father has always said that the vast majority of rumors start with a grain of truth and with how desperate Handsome Jack is to kill the Raiders. That’s the one I have a belief in.”

“And the rumors that state he wants to wipe the planet clean?” He asked carefully.

“Look at the town we’re in Ax, look at what we’ve seen so far with bandits and psychos and creatures… isn’t that what _we_ are doing slowly?”

AJ sent him a small smile of understanding as she watched conflict cross his face, she slipped her aid back on and patted his shoulder gently. “I’m going to wake the others and get Hammerlock and Craptrap. Try not to stay out of it for too long, old man”

“It’s Claptrap and doesn’t call me old” Axton scolded instantly and went to clip her across the head before he realized she’d climbed up from the floor, he caught himself before he accidentally swatted her ass instead.

AJ snorted at the shock and maybe fear that moved across his face as he managed to catch his hand before he actually hit her, she patted his head patronizingly with a grin “You wouldn’t be the first to do that Ax, how do you think my dad tried to get me to behave and control my smart mouth?” she laughed at the look on his face as she slipped into the building and carefully roused the others. “Come on, we’re heading out after eating”

Gaige groaned and threw her pillow at AJ as she covered her head which caused AJ to laugh and pounce on her.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something I forgot to say yesterday:  
> \- Angel's mother never died, she was saved last minute before the turret turned on her. But a week after the incident, she left Jack which turned him bitter and protective.

“I still have some things to do around here Vault Hunters, so I shall see you again in Sanctuary” Hammerlock informed them after they had stocked and packed up their things, looting the houses a little since they all knew that the citizens of Liar’s Berg would never return with all the Bandits and Psycho’s around.

“It will be a pleasure to see you again Sir Hammerlock, stay safe” Axton nodded in acceptance of his choice, although, the others weren’t as happy with Claptrap continuing to be their guide. They all said a quick goodbye to Hammerlock before they set off from the town and towards Captain Flynt due to Claptrap’s ship being there. The fact that they would also need to handle Flynt’s first mate was making them annoyed with the bandits already.

Just after they left the town, their Echo’s all clicked on once more and AJ groaned in annoyance as she bit her tongue to keep from speaking back to Handsome Jack again.

“Hey, hows’it… god, these pretzels suck… How’s your day started kiddos? We haven’t really talked much since –“

“Well, your big mouth has talked, we haven’t” AJ grumbled under her breath and grimaced as all of the adults hissed her name, Zer0 sent her an angry face which caused her to run her hand through her hair, waiting for Jack to speak back.

“Since I left you for dead” Jack growled before he took a deep breath and ignored her “Hey, you think you’ll freeze to death out there?... Nah, probably not. That bandits will get you first. My day? It’s been pretty good. I just bought a pony made of diamonds. Yeah, because I’m rich! So you know… That’s cool. Kay Bye!”

“Sorry Ax” AJ mumbled lightly after the Echo clicked off, she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly before she noticed movement in front of her and immediately had her gun out and aimed at the bandits that were in the small area in front of them.

The fight didn’t take long, thankfully, AJ just wanted to get out of the cold, she picked up a new pistol and threw it to Maya who caught it easily and compared it with the one she had, before keeping the new one in her hand and putting the other into her pack.

As the continued on, the whole group groaned at the same time as the Echo clicked once again.

“I’m rackin’ my brain tryin’ to think of a name for that diamond pony I bought. I was going to call it ‘piss for brains’ in honor of you, but that just feels… immature…” Jack mused through the Echo.

“How about ‘Giant Jackass’, you do love yourself, after all, and it’s quite obvious that you’re overcompensating for something” AJ growled softly, she assumed the man would continue speaking but he was silent until a growl and a crash echoed across the Echo, her words had been heard.

“Maybe ‘butt stallion’? Nah, that’s even worse. Tell ya what, I’ll give it some more thought”

With another click, the man was gone and this time AJ received a sharp smack across the back of her head, although, Axton was aware enough to be careful of her aid.

“One more word to him AJ and the moment we get into Sanctuary, you’ll be grounded from missions” Axton growled in annoyance.

AJ paled a little as she realized that that meant that she would be stuck in a small town with bandits and crimson raiders, people she hated, and people Axton knew she hated. It was a weird punishment considering she hasn’t been grounded since she ran away from home when she was fifteen.

“One, I said I was sorry and I told you earlier that there’s something that just rubs me wrong with him so I can’t stop myself, and two… dude, are you a dad or something?” She was very curious but frowned when he ducked his head and continued towards the small settlement that was ahead of them.

The group of them once again started to fight against those that wanted to kill them, this time AJ was able to handle using her nanotech for a little while, while Gaige fixed her summoning element and brought Deathtrap to the party. The fight was over quickly and both girls high-fived with a grin before they started looking for ammo to replenish their stocks.

Rolling her eyes as Claptrap spoke, she leaned against some of the boxes as he dropped the drawbridge before panicking briefly as a psycho ran towards them with a live grenade. She quickly shot the psycho in the head before ducking behind a wall to avoid the blow-up of the grenade.

Axton and Maya ran to her side as Salvador stood in front of Gaige in case of another surprise attack, Maya had a hypo in her hand and watched carefully for any sign of injuries before putting it away.

“Damn it Claptrap, you need to be careful, just in case there are idiots like that around the corner” AJ scolded the bot, their Echo’s clicked once more and they all groaned as AJ growled in annoyance.

“I should probably clarify… the diamond horse? It’s not just some random sculpture or anything. It’s a living freaking horse that happens to actually be made of… actually, I’ll just go get her. Butt Stallion! C’mere girl, Butt Stallion! Say hello.” Jack chuckled over the Echo as a horse neighed in the background.

AJ was fighting the urge to speak out and they could all tell that she was trying, but she was frustrated, and she knew that she couldn’t shoot one of her annoyances, and Jack already had it in for her so she might as well speak out. Maybe one of the missions she’d be kept from would mean that she could avoid being near any of those that she hated.

“Oh look, two things you must love, butts and stallions… are you sure she’s a girl, seems counterproductive don’t you think? Hope you have fun with your er… stallion” She should have hung up as soon as she spoke, but they all assumed that the quiet on the other end meant that he had hung up.

“Butt Stallion says hello”

The silence was even more deafening as AJ kicked at the crates next to her, the team watched her carefully.

“You got it out of your system now?” Axton asked her carefully as she took a deep breath and nodded, grabbing her gun and gesturing for them to continue onwards. “By the way, you probably realized by now, you’re grounded.”

A nod was all he got in return as they continued, the drop in front of them made her a bit wary about what they were about to face, but she followed Axton and the others, each of them darting behind cover the moment that they noticed the giant cannon aimed at them.

“Son of a taint!” AJ growled as she noticed a second man along with a bunch of psycho’s “Gaige, use the corrosive weapon on the cannon!”

Gaige nodded with determination before setting up a little covered area and shooting non-stop at the cannon while the others protected her, AJ cried out as her shield broke and she was sent flying backward by a shotgun blast to the shoulder. Zer0 materialized next to her and carefully administered help before dragging her to cover until her shield repaired. He made her look at him and created the image of an arrow pointing down with an exclamation mark.

“Stay?” AJ questioned quietly and sighed in resignation as he nodded, she agreed with him as she stayed where she was, her gun kept tight to her chest as she fought whoever thought they could pick her off.

The fight slowly came to a halt and AJ pushed herself off the floor, she moved to Axton and grunted slightly as he pulled her into a hug, closely followed by Gaige and then Maya and then the other two which caused AJ to roll her eyes fondly.

“I’m okay, I’ve had worse” AJ promised them all as she shooed them away from her, she ducked down when she noticed something on the floor and grinned “Hey cool! Grenades”

Both teenagers grinned as they realized the opportunities they had with grenades.

“Hey, minions! We need to get through this gate! One of you uses that giant cannon to blow it open when I say so!” Claptrap ordered, AJ moved to get in the cannon until Axton placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Claptrap, we’re going to have a rest for ten minutes, that was a hell of a fight, and AJ was injured” Axton ordered the robot who seemed to deflate a little but stayed silent which seemed like an agreement to them.

Gaige moved around the area with Salvador to collect ammo, money, and whatever weapons they could get; Gaige soon proudly presented AJ with a fire sniper rifle that had been hidden away and AJ grinned happily at her best friend.

The others continued to look around while AJ sat alone against the cannon, she frowned as she heard a beep from her Echo and opened it up, paling as she noticed a message.

**Jack: You think you’re clever you bandit scum? Think you can ‘win’ against the hero before I get my hands on you. You. Are. Wrong.**

AJ bit her lip hard enough that it bled as she read through the message twice more, she licked her lip before taking a deep breath.

**AJ: I’ve been told I’m an idiot more than once actually… I wouldn’t call myself a bandit though. I don’t think I can win against you, the moment that I get the chance, I’m getting off-planet. Hunting a Vault is fun, princess, but not worth going against Hyperion.**

**AJ: Btw, not that you’ll care about my opinion, but your guns rock.**

**Jack: You really are an idiot if you’re answering my message with your own pumpkin. You’re a Vault Hunter heading to Sanctuary, a city of nothing but bandits and scum like you…**

**Jack: You want to leave Pandora? What, scared of little old me?**

**Jack: My guns are the best.**

AJ looked up at the others who had finally settled down around her, none of them even bothered to wonder what she was doing, especially since Gaige was tinkering with her own Echo.

**AJ: What can I say? I just got shot in the shoulder so we’re having a rest before we kick the ass of that Flynt guy. It’s not my decision to head to Sanctuary, SOMEONE, blew up my stuff, I need money to get off this hellhole.**

**AJ: If I was scared of you SIR, then I wouldn’t be talking back to you. I’m leaving because I despise Pandora, I always have.**

**AJ: They could use some upgrades and better aiming with the sights but sure.**

**Jack: EX – FUCKING- SCUSE ME? My guns don’t need upgrades!**

**Jack: You’re talking to me because you’re bored? You could always give yourself up and get the Million bucks for yourself? A bandit who hates Sanctuary, well that’s a first. You despise Pandora? What? Not clean enough for you?**

**AJ: You should talk to your weapons division and create specs so that a gun can switch between elements, have a switch that will change how the firing pin interacts with your bullets. And your sniper sights are off by a couple of millimeters to the right, whoever is in your design team are using the same sights but changing the name and look.**

**AJ: Why give myself up when I can keep annoying you? Pandora is a hellhole… always has been… well, I have to leave your exulted presence PRINCESS. Ta Ta.**

“Everything okay AJ?” Axton asked her quietly as she slipped her Echo back into her bag without saying a word.

AJ smiled at the commando and nodded in reassurance as she climbed up from the floor, rolling her shoulder as she did so to remove the aches from getting a shotgun to the shoulder. “Everything’s fine, can I blow up the gate please?”

The small group chuckled as AJ let out a squeak of happiness and hugged Axton before darting around the cannon and climbing into it.

“Right! Minion you need to shoot the cannon when I say ‘get ready, shoot the cannon” Claptrap started and kept repeating the words no matter how many times the group tried to get him to move.

With a roll of her eyes, AJ pushed the button and blew up the gate, sending Claptrap flying from the area. She expected to be scolded by one of their small group but none of them seemed to be bothered by the loss of the bot for now.

Instead, they focused on knocking down the waves of psychos that came ready to kill them. AJ grinned happily as she climbed out of the cannon and linked her arm with Axton for a moment before pressing a kiss to his cheek “Best big brother ever” She informed him before she released his arm and linked hers with Gaige instead.

The two girls went ahead while Axton stood frozen for a moment, memories of his little sister before she died came to the front of his mind, he shook his head and continued after the girls with Maya by his side, a small smile aimed her way managed to calm her worry as they watched the girls act their age.

“You had a sister previously?” Maya questioned him quietly and wasn’t surprised when he nodded his head.

“She died of a disease, we still don’t know what it was, she was twelve. She was ten years younger than me…”

\- - -

A crash echoed throughout the room as another keyboard went flying through the air at the wall.

Angel stood in front of her father amused as he ranted and raved about one of the Vault Hunters that had had the gall to insult him, then insinuate that he laid with horses and then added further insult but questioning his designs. Although that was the basic version, her father was adding a lot more explicates and everything, yet he tells her to watch her language.

Angel only startles slightly at the cold hand on her bare shoulder and looks over her shoulder with a small smile for her future stepfather.

“What’s going on?” Rhys asked gently as he watched Jack have one of his moods, the poor computers, but at least it wasn’t dead bodies. He’d slowly started to cut back on all that.

“The Vault Hunter that insulted him yesterday did the same thing today, she seemed to be fighting against saying anything, but daddy pushed, as he does, she got the last word by insinuating dalliances between him and his new horse. And I think she’s messaged him back through the Echo and questioned our guns?” The siren explained just as gently so that she didn’t set her father off again, she didn’t need him actually adding bodies to the mess of the office.

Rhys nodded carefully before kissed Angel’s cheek lightly and moved to Jack, he made sure he saw him before he wrapped his arms around his shoulders from behind, pressing his nose against Jack’s neck to calm him down.

It was like magic. Angel had never seen anyone calm her father down like that since Aurora, she loved seeing her father and Rhys together, the programmer had randomly fallen into their lives, literally, since someone had tripped him down the stairs. Everyone had expected her father to lash out and kill the ‘giraffe’ but instead, her dad asked him if he was okay and they both got on like a house on fire.

“Want to calmly explain what’s going through that gorgeous mind of yours handsome?” Rhys murmured to his lover as he hugged him close.

“You need to contact R&D, find out if there’s a way they could do two separate charges through the firing pin to allow separate elements to be used in one gun. Also, find out who is in charge of the sniper rifles and scopes” Jack told his lover/Personal Assistant, it was one of the things he loved about his job, he got to hang out with his lover every day.

“Has this come from the Vault Hunter?” Rhys asked even more curious, although, the inner programmer part of him was desperate to try and make the code work himself, however, he needed to be around Jack to try and keep him sane instead. The sniper rifle and scope thing were lost on him though.

“She says that that idea has merit but also the scope of the rifle is the same damn one every time with just different looks”

“Do you know who this kid is?”

A glance to his daughter made her close her eyes as she tried to go through the information that filled her head, information that she absorbed when they first started to try and kill off the good Hunters.

“AJ, no last name or what the name stands for. Age 21. She appeared on our radar when she was 19, she had created the nanotech and was using it. She showed interest in the vault and you wanted to even it out” Angel spoke carefully as he eyes seemed to flick through pages of information, she slowly opened her eyes and frowned “That’s all we have on her, you sent an invite after you saw her fight against one of the clans on Eden-4, but she wasn’t from there.”

“She’s Pandoran born, that much I can tell” Jack informed his daughter as he sunk into the hold of his lover, he wanted to get his hands on this kid and kill her slowly and painfully, but part of him also picked up on the fact that she wasn’t far from still being a teenager so the attitude was actually expected, he just hoped that Angel wouldn’t have as much attitude as the Vault Hunter when she reached that age. “Keep an eye on her baby girl, I want to know who the hell she is and why she thinks she can talk to me like that”

Angel nodded at her father and smiled at the both of them, she moved to his side now that his anger had dissipated and hugged the both of them closely “The plans are in motion daddy, everything will be fine soon”

“Just breathe handsome, the kid will probably get killed on Pandora or she’ll leave” Rhys reminded him gently as he kissed his lover gently and kissed Angel’s forehead before Angel skipped off out of the office. He pulled away from Jack before a laugh escaped him as Jack tugged him backward until he’d fallen into his lap, he rolled his eyes fondly at Jack and relaxed as the older man kissed him.

\- - -

It took the small group less time than they originally thought, to get to Claptrap’s ship, they had gathered and sold as much as they could carry and had even seemed to fill their packs with some rations and a blanket each for when they were forced to calm out under the stars. Axton had managed to find supplies to create a makeshift tent that would fit inside his pack so Sal and AJ both took parts of his rations and blankets so that he had more room and he trusted the both of them with said stuff.

The battle with Flynt was exhausting, the giant man was resistant to AJ’s nanotech and sniper, but thankfully Gaige still had her corrosive gun, and the others all focused on plain weapons, so they were able to subdue him before they were killed themselves.

“Heads up kid” Axton called over and threw a pistol over to her, she caught the gun with ease as she quickly put her other one in her pack, with a quick once over, she realized that the pistol was a Maliwan shock gun.

The idea of using a Maliwan gun was one that was worse than the idea of using a Dahl gun, but she knew that this gun was a rare one which made her confused as to why the bandit had it. She followed after the group while appraising the gun in her hand, a hand on her hip made her jump as Gaige switched out her shield with a small shrug.

“This one has a better strength and recharge rate” Gaige shrugged as she went back to looting the home of the Captain, the group followed Claptrap onto the ship, and all groaned in satisfaction as they noticed the separate rooms with showers.

Settling down for the night, AJ once again looked through the gun and noted a few things that could make her next Hyperion shock gun better, which meant that she was going to be keeping the gun and changing bits around when she had the time to. She pulled out her tools and looked between her gloves and her Echo before picking up the Echo, sitting cross-legged on her bed, and started to pick it apart to upgrade it to the best of her abilities.

A beep brought her out of her work as she looked at the screen of the device and rolled her eyes at the message from Jack.

**Jack: So Flynt is dead… Congrats kiddo, you’ll still be dying by my hand at this rate.**

**AJ: Are you THAT bored, princess? I told you, I’m gone the moment I have funds, you won’t find me.**

**Jack: Are you THAT stupid to answer me again? You won’t be able to run pumpkin; you’ve put yourself on my radar and I plan to end you.**

**AJ: Eh… It’s better than nightmares.**

**AJ: How’d the gun thing go?**

**Jack: …The scope designer now has a WONDERFUL view of Pandora and space.**

**AJ: ...huh?**

**Jack: He got pushed out of the airlock cupcake. Keep up.**

**AJ: Well that’s not maniacal at all... Did you look into the charge of the firing pin?**

There was no answer for a few minutes so AJ went back to tinkering with the Echo, a clearing of someone’s throat made her look up from the bed and smile a little at Axton who gave her a stern look.

“We’re supposed to be resting AJ, not staying awake all night” Axton scolded lightly as he took in the mess of her bed.

“I’ll put my Echo back together and go to bed now” She promised him gently, her eyes flickering down as she notices a message coming through. “Maybe you should go check on Gaige? She’s probably the one who will be the grumpiest without sleep”

Axton gave a sigh of resignation before sending another look at the Echo and leaving the room.

**Jack: I’m not maniacal cupcake, I’m eccentric.**

**Jack: I did, I have a new toy to test on you when I get my hands on you, death by your own idea sounds pretty fun doesn’t it?**

**AJ: You can’t see me but I’m rolling my eyes.**

**> >AJ sent a file<<**

**AJ: Knock yourself out with these specs, Maliwan makes sure Hyperion can’t get their hands on their guns right?**

**AJ: I may love elemental guns, but I hate Maliwan, they are cheap imitations of good guns.**

**Jack: ...go to sleep kid, you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow**

AJ looked at Echo in surprise, she didn’t think that Handsome Jack would ever order someone to go to sleep, especially not someone who he had already tried to kill.

She hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out if she wanted to have the last word but managed to have some restraint as she put the Echo together and switched the lights off to pass out on the bed for the time being.


	3. Chapter Three

“You’re pensive about something, what’s going on?” Rhys asked tiredly as he lay next to Jack in bed, he had collapsed onto the bed the moment that he was able to and didn’t want to move at all, although, neither men were up for anything besides sleep anyway.

It was Jack’s Echo that had brought the both of them out of the half-dazed sleep they had going on, an announcement that Flynt had been killed by the Vault Hunters and they were set on their way to Sanctuary.

Jack knew that they were going to kill Flynt, it was the whole reason that Jack and dumped the Claptrap unit there, and then blew the train up at the specific area, he wanted them to meet the idiot bot and he wanted them to kill the Bandit Captain, the beast needed to die and Jack couldn’t be bothered to do it himself.

He was just hoping that the plans that he, Rhys, and Angel had come up with, were going to be successful.

“Kid just sent me the specs for the Thunderball Fists, the shock gun that Maliwan released. Apparently, she’s gotten her hands on it from somewhere and rather than being smart, she’s sent the specs to me. I don’t understand this kid Rhysie” Jack frowned as he went through the specs quickly, his eyes skimming little things that he could use for his own future guns, there was so much he could use but the base looked familiar too. “She’s a mouthy little shit, she has no fear, but she’s also not interested in going against Hyperion. I want to kill her Rhysie, slowly and painfully for her comments, but she’s making it hard for me to get the anger to do it, I also don’t like that she mentioned she has nightmares but that might be because I’d feel the same if Angel had nightmares?”

Rhys sighed tiredly and plucked the Echo out of Jack’s hands, placing it on the bedside cabinet before tugging his lover close and curling into him. “You’re a parent Jack, you will never be able to brush those instincts away… the two young Vault Hunters? You’ll probably struggle to end them with this plan and the kid is making harder by making you fight against the father instincts inside you because I know for a fact that if Angel spoke that way to you, you would have kicked her ass the moment you got your hands on her”

“Go to sleep handsome, we’ll figure out a way around those instincts tomorrow”

\- - -

The glaciers around them were starting to annoy AJ, she needed to get away from the cold and the snow as well as Claptraps grating voice, the moment that the ship docked, AJ and Maya were off the ship as Claptrap started to make demands for his return to Sanctuary, but they all knew that those demands would never get met because they were ridiculous.

As she and Maya started walking towards the only way from the docks, there was a lot of noise as a vehicle drove above them. They all winced as they heard a small broadcast from someone shouting that Sanctuary is off-limits as he sent a bunch of rockets from the car and blowing up the bridge.

Maya sighed as the small group started up the incline, all of them shooting down the numerous bullymongs that appeared. “Why does this world have to be so complicated?”

“Because easy is overrated?” Gaige offered with a bright grin as she shot down the creatures.

They all paused when the AI appeared once more and informed them that they needed to get a vehicle. As they reached the machine, they all groaned aloud as they got banned from the machine and listened as the woman gave them some information.

“AJ, Gaige, can one of you hack it?” Axton asked as Zer0 and Salvador started off behind them to get the adapter, just in case.

“I don’t know Pandora tech well enough to be successful” Gauge apologized before Axton turned to AJ who frowned apologetically.

“I know the tech but I’m not too good with hacking outdated equipment, I would probably cause more damage rather than help”

It wasn’t much of an issue, not long after AJ and Gaige had looked over the machine, Zer0 and Salvador appeared with the interface, the two men have had some fun with blowing up psychos and bandits to get it.

Seeing the woman in the screen rather than in their head was a welcome relief as she hacked the machine, the man’s voice was annoying but not as annoying as Claptrap thankfully.

Axton and Maya created two runners, Zer0 sat in the gun of Axton’s while Salvador went into the one of Maya’s. Axton looked between the two girls who were watching them amused before he gestured for Gaige to join him while AJ went into the vehicle with Maya.

“Gaige and I could have made a runner you know” AJ pointed out amused as she climbed into the other seat, while Maya just gave her a look and started off towards Sanctuary, the jump across the bridge was exciting and had AJ giggling as they hit the ground on the other side, she could hear Gaige laughing and knew that she wasn’t the only one enjoying how chaotic their ‘leaders’ were driving.

AJ noticed Maya clenching her hands on the steering wheel as the woman appeared once more while they drove, this was probably a dangerous time for her to appear, but she didn’t seem to care. However, AJ wasn’t entirely happy at having to go and meet Roland.

As they drove, the nanotechnician thought about the small group that she had been put with for the past few days and how they actually seemed to have become friends since she and Gaige had started to taunt Axton. The man becoming something like a brother to the two of them as he took the lead of the group with Maya as his second in command.

Did she want to leave? AJ had a hatred for the Vault Hunters that no one could really understand but her family, but she also hadn’t seen her family since she ran away when she was fifteen, she didn’t even know if they thought she was alive or dead. Maybe she shouldn’t have lied about her age while becoming a Vault Hunter, if she had kept her age then her family might have found her, but that was also a dangerous thought because her father would be pissed with her.

Staring out at the ice as it started to melt to rock while they drove into a new area, AJ missed a broadcast from Jack, only knowing because Maya whispered a ‘well done’ for not speaking out but AJ just gave a nod as she started going through planets for her to disappear to again.

They reached Sanctuary quicker than expected and AJ sighed as they all climbed out of the cars, a hand on her shoulder from Axton made her smile a little as he said well done for keeping her mouth shut. Gaige moved to her side and nudged her with a slightly worried look as they tried to get into Sanctuary only to be turned away to get a power core.

“Couldn’t they have gotten off their arses and found the core themselves?” AJ grumbled to Gaige who agreed with her, both of them just wanted to sit down and tinker rather than constantly be up and doing other people’s jobs for them. Gaige hoped that she was getting paid for this because she wanted to send the money home to get her parents away from danger.

“Ax, if I come with you, I’ll have a lot of choice words for whoever starts annoying me most, either the AI, Jack or this Reiss guy” AJ warned the commando, she didn’t sleep as well as she hoped and they had all known that the moment that they noticed that she was the hardest to get out of bed. It took Claptrap’s voice to get her out of bed and off the ship in the end.

“How about you check out the camp we just emptied? Try and find some more things we can use because I have a feeling that they are just going to keep sending us anywhere and everywhere” Axton offered and nodded as AJ relaxed, she watched them leave and sighed as she headed into the camp to raid it for things that she and the others could use. She didn’t understand why Sanctuary was actually allowing bandits to camp so close to their gates.

Having the AI in her head and then Jack made her thankful that she stayed behind and soon found better bedrolls and definitely better guns. Soon she gave up with raiding the area and sat down with her back against one of the houses, keeping an eye out for more psychos while tinkering away on her Echo again.

**AJ: So, Ms. AI, what’s your name?**

**ANG3L: My name is Angel. What does your name stand for?**

**AJ: A name I know is best kept hidden from everyone.**

**ANG3L: You don’t trust me?**

**AJ: The only people I trust are my family... Is there any way I can block Handsome Jack’s broadcasts?**

**ANG3L: His signal is too strong.**

AJ groaned as she dropped her head back against the wall, she listened to Jack’s speech and bit her lip hard enough that it started to bleed as she tried to keep from speaking out against the man. She knew that she was going to be killed and tortured by the man if he ever caught her, which is why she hoped to get off-planet soon. His mention of a secret made her frown in confusion and worry.

It was near an hour before AJ heard the sound of engines and immediately had her gun at the ready before she spotted Zer0 and smiled at the sight of her friends, she had never felt so happy about seeing someone she worked with before, leaving them was definitely going to be an issue. She got up from the ground and looked confused at the lack of Crimson Raider with them, she sighed at the small shake of the head from Axton before heading to the button to let them into Sanctuary.

“You’re doing well with not antagonizing him anymore” Axton praised softly, he scowled at the mention of Roland going missing and knew that they were going to be sent out to look for him. There was one thing that was bugging him about the whole job, they were Vault Hunters which meant they hunted for the Vault of Pandora, not that they went everywhere on the whim of Raiders who weren’t getting off their own asses to do what needs to be done.

The bandit camp right next to the Sanctuary gates proved that they weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing.

“I may be doing good at not antagonizing Handsome Jack, but that doesn’t mean I’ll not antagonize the Raiders” AJ murmured softly to him, he looked like he wanted to scold her but also looked like he agreed with her, his eyes looking around them at the close nature of the bandit camp right next to the gates of Sanctuary.

The gate opening to the area for Sanctuary brought them out of their musings as they started forward, the power core in Axton’s bag.

Once again, Jack appeared over the Echo, and AJ had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from biting her lip as he spoke about secrets again. She followed the others as they put the power core into the shield and jumped as mortars hit the shield above them.

Gaige took her hand as they started heading to the gate and watched it close, neither girl liked the idea of living in a place that had the possibility of being hit with mortars if the power cell suddenly failed.

“Crap... I mean darn” AJ and Gaige both started snickering at the AI trying to watch their language and kept walking before AJ growled at being lumped in with the people of Sanctuary. She may be a thief because of her looting to survive, a killer because of her job, but the only thing she actually agreed on being called is an outcast; it had been a label she had worn proudly for years.

The mechanic made her want to sigh in annoyance as his voice grated in her nerves but it wasn’t as bad as Claptraps voice, she left Axton and the others to talk with Scooter as she looked around the workshop and picked up little bits and pieces that she and Gaige could use, she would ask him the moment that he calmed down from his rant about Hyperion.

“Scooter right?”

“That’s right little lady” Scooter nodded as Maya and Zer0 looked around for the fuel cells and Axton went to get the other one, a small smile made it to her lips at the small amount of respect he showed her by calling her ‘little lady’, it reminded her of her dad’s partner.

“Any chance Gaige and I could buy some supplies off of you so we can work on our tech?” She asked him politely, he started to converse with the others and she waited as he finished speaking to the others before she grimaced at the mention of cousins taking a bath.

“Sure thing little darling, you should go check whatchya need, but go see Roland’s place too, Tannis usually has a bunch of stuff too”

Gaige thanked Scooter carefully as they looked around the workshop and grabbed what they needed and then headed up to where Roland supposedly lived, they had actually managed to get a decent amount of tools from the workshop with his blessing before they began to head towards Roland’s place.

Both girls headed to meet the Tannis woman too but were annoyed when they were led the other way to a fast travel system so that they could go and find the Firehawk and get Roland from them. Axton paused and looked at AJ for a moment before he shook his head and they all headed towards the next destination, shooting up the bloodshot until they reached the entrance to the place.

Jack's voice caught AJ’s attention again as she zoned out but this time she snapped and reacted to him “Damn it, will you quit it! Okay, you have a secret now fuck off”

Jack was quiet again for a moment “Language!”

The whole group looked at each other before AJ started to snicker at being told off by the man for something as stupid as her language, she had shouted and belittled him but it was her language that actually made him snap at her rather than ignore her?

Axton rolled his eyes and clipped her across the ear “What the language brat or I’ll wash your mouth out, you’re lucky that I haven’t already grounded you to Sanctuary” he warned her as they started into the encampment that stood between themselves and the Firehawk.

AJ pouted lightly at the warning before she sighed and grabbed her gun, readying herself to fight against the bloodshots, the Firehawk sounded dangerous and every warning they got through their travel through the encampments. Every time someone appeared over their Echo’s one of the group would cover their hand over her mouth to keep her silent.

The reveal of the Firehawk caused Axton to quickly grab AJ before she stormed forward to punch the siren.

“Lilith, could you take AJ back with you please?” Axton asked the Siren politely, AJ grimaced at the question and growled softly under her breath as Lilith agreed with some confusion in her voice.

“Gaige” AJ mumbled lightly and handed her the tools that she would need the most for Deathtrap and her Echo, she gave the younger girl a small smile and took a step back as Lilith failed at transporting them into the Bloodshot hideout. She was partly okay with being sent back to Sanctuary, it meant she could hide away and tinker, or she could meet Marcus and learn more gun stuff. But she didn’t really want to be stuck with Lilith and the former Vault Hunters.

“So killer, why are you getting sent back with me?” Lilith asked her carefully as she began to gather up her things before taking the young woman’s hand and transporting her to Sanctuary without warning.

AJ groaned and hunched over a little at the shift of ground from underneath her and took a deep breath to keep from throwing up, she wanted to punch the siren again but knew not to, otherwise, Axton would kill her.

“I mouthed off to Handsome Jack a few times” AJ sighed as she ran her hand through her hair “Axton’s gone a bit protective over Gaige and I because of our ages and because of the near-death experience, I’m the one with a smart mouth though and Jack irritates me, but Jack has also stated he wants me alive so he can kill me himself so yay me. Anywhere I can sleep?”

“You… mouthed off to Handsome Jack?” Lilith spoke slowly.

“May have stated that he has dalliances with horses, interrupted him, laughed at him… and recently swore at him” AJ shrugged as she stood up straight and got her breathing under control “I’m going to go find somewhere to sleep”


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a short one.  
> I have a lot to work to do IRL unfortunately

AJ had only managed two hours sleep in the end. She had been sent to see Tannis who AJ found to be weird but also a delight to be around and bounce ideas off, she was then sent towards one of the spare bunk beds that were around the bottom floor of the Raider’s headquarters and climbed onto the top, passing out within moments.

After waking up from the two hours of sleep, she finally felt energized enough not to snap at any and everyone.

**Gaige: Couldn’t get into the dam, we’re meeting Scooters sister to get a new vehicle**

**AJ: Keep me updated.**

With a grimace, AJ found out that the closest decent shower was at Moxxi’s so she managed to hold her head up high as she walked into the bar, the music was blaring and sounded wrong, it was grating on her ears and she didn't even understand why someone could actually call it music. With a deep breath, she moved to the bar and gave Moxxi a polite smile, waiting for the woman to acknowledge her after serving a customer along with threatening him about stealing or something.

"What can I do for you sugar?" Moxxi questioned as she eyed the state of the young woman, the bar owner already knew who she was considering the gossip going around the bar, Hammerlock had also offered Moxxi as much information as he could on the group of Vault Hunter's that had appeared on Pandora; he had actually gushed a little as he spoke about how the youngest two were well-versed in technology, it seemed that Gaige had taken a bit of time in the morning they were there to tighten a few of the bolts that Hammerlock couldn't reach on his arm. Moxxi also knew that the one in front of her was the one that had been back talking to Handsome Jack, the news had traveled like wildfire around Sanctuary.

"Is there any chance that you have a decent shower that I could use?" AJ asked the woman politely, she sidestepped a man stumbling towards her and grabbed his hand before he had a chance to steal any of her money, she gripped his wrist tightly in warning before shoving him away and turning back to Moxxi who was watching her closely.

Moxxi nodded "Through the door on the right, it has locks on it and no one uses it without permission so you'll be safe, I always make sure whoever is in there is alone in there unless they go in as a group"

There had been one scare since Moxxi had opened the bar, and since then she had kept a close eye on the door whenever she knew there was someone in there, the only time that she didn't was when she was in there herself and the bar was usually closed when that happened; the only time a group had used it was when Roland, Lilith, Brick, and Mordecai were still running around as a team, none of them cared who saw what. 

"Thank you" she whispered softly before following the directions and slipping into the shower, she double-checked the locks and looked around for any sign of cameras. 

With a relieved sigh, AJ stripped off carefully and slipped into the showers, groaning lightly at the hot water that hit her, she had missed having a decent shower, and it looked like at least one person in Sanctuary wasn't uncultured, she was definitely going to drag Gaige with her the next time she came, the younger girl was becoming like her sister and AJ had dragged her sister kicking and screaming to a shower before because she was going through a difficult phase and their dad was busy so AJ played the parent for the afternoon. Her sister was not impressed but it was always a funny story for both of them.

She quickly finished up with her shower and grimaced at the state of her clothes, she knew that Tannis had washers in the headquarters, she was going to need to go to the quick-change system and pay for some new clothes so that she could wash the others; as soon as she was dressed she got out of the building as fast as she could, she made a quick detour to change her clothes before she asked directions to Marcus Munitions and smirked a little as she opened the door and heard voices.

Watching from the doorway, AJ sighed and rolled her eyes at the idiocy of some people and wasn't even surprised when Marcus shot a man in the leg after the guy tried to say that the gun was faulty, if the gun was faulty then you try and sell it to someone else, not back to the man that had sold it to you, it was a rookie move; she shuffled to the side as the man limped out of the basement store and looked over at the man who was smirking as he saw her in the doorway.

“Another customer I see, what can I do for you today?” Marcus asked in amusement, his eyes watching her as she moved into the room without fear considering he had just shot someone in front of her, although she shouldn't be squeamish since she was a Vault Hunter, his amusement grew as she didn’t even try and avoid the blood on the floor while walking towards his counter.

AJ eyed him closely for a moment, she wasn't sure how this meeting was going to go, but if he played along with what she wanted then she could try and keep her friends alive with her edits and knew that when she left Pandora, they would be safe without her. She was very lucky that she had watched her father edit guns for years, it was her favorite past time, sitting in his lap or next to him as he created plans or even edited his own gun because he was bored.

“Do you have any old guns or parts that you don’t need? Something I can use to adapt my own gun?” she asked him curiously as she looked around, she pulled out her pistol and passed it over to him from behind the counter, she hadn’t been able to make any adjustments yet and didn’t want to take the Maliwan gun apart just yet so was wondering if he had other things she could use.

“You adapt guns young one?” Marcus asked, more amusement leaked into his voice at the idea of her making her own weapons, he knew to never judge someone before he got to know them, it was amusing to him to see someone so young attempting to adapt guns for her own purpose, but, for all he knew, she could be very good at doing the edits. He took the gun from her and noticed the make and model, he had a feeling that he had some things she could use since he didn't usually mess with Hyperion guns.

“I do” she confirmed as she leaned against the counter to watch the man closely, his weapons had been big since she was young, he was one of the few that managed to make ends meet outside of the big companies like Dahl and Hyperion. “I prefer tinkering with Hyperion guns, adding different parts of other guns and seeing what works and what doesn’t. My gun before the train crash was a Hyperion revolver with a Maliwan incendiary fire pin that charged the bullets, the reload speed was perfection and so was the accuracy but unfortunately it went missing during the crash, which is where part of my annoyance with the man has come from, I spent two years on that bloody gun.”

Marcus watched her carefully, he listened to the things that she had done to the guns and smirked at the end of it, the young woman did actually know what she was doing which was a breath of fresh air, so many people thought they were good with guns but it was only a small few that had the natural knack for them. He waved her through to the back of the shop as he moved through the door that separated him from her, she hesitated before doing what she was told and followed him into a gun range with a dead psycho hanging from the target.

“Elemental experiments?” She questioned curiously as she caught sight of the body and rolled her eyes at the grin of confirmation from the gun shop owner, he pulled out a container and AJ lit up as she noticed the parts of old guns that were either broken or useless. “I think you are my new favorite in Sanctuary”

-*-

“Yo killer, Axton is on the Echo for you, wants you to fast-travel to Ellie’s place” Lilith spoke from the doorway of the back of Marcus’ shop, AJ looked up and nearly used the ‘instincts’ excuse to shoot the siren but decided not to, she was really going to have to work on her anger when faced with the siren. Instead, she nodded a little and put both her pistol, and another that she had bought and edited quickly, into her pack, one that she had made for Gaige that was similar to her corrosion one, but it was a shock element instead.

“Looks like my grounding is over then” AJ grinned lightly, thankful that Axton had only kept her away for a day rather than longer, she climbed up from the floor where she had been surrounded by parts and pouted at having to leave the parts behind “Yo Marc, I can come around again right?”

“Of course young one, your edits are welcomed any time” Marcus called out from behind his counter, his eyes sweeping the floor, he moved into the back with her and placed some parts into a bag that she could hang from her pack, he handed it to her knowing that they were useless to him but he could see that she had plans for them, she nodded thankfully to him with a small smile and quickly handed him some cash for the parts that she used and winked lightly as he tried to give it back to her.

With a skip in her step, she followed Lilith from Marcus shop, looking around with concealed annoyance at the state of the place around her.

"He doesn't usually try and relinquish money, you must have made an impression on him" Lilith commented and frowned lightly as AJ just shrugged in response, the sired sighed as the younger woman veered off sideways to go to the fast-travel system without saying a word to the Firehawk, she went scrolled through the system and placed the co-ordinates for the Dust before bracing herself for appearing in the heat of the Dust. She hated the Fast-Travel systems, they felt weird and you could never be sure that someone couldn't hack the systems and send a person elsewhere without warning.

“Hiya darling, I’m bettin’ yer AJ with the VH’s?” A female voice spoke up from inside the garage that she just appeared in front of, AJ looked around in surprise at being recognized without being seen before she headed into the garage and smiled lightly at the woman in front of her, the Vault Hunter could easily see that she had an air of kindness about her and obviously knew what she was doing with cars, it was also obvious as to who her brother was even though they didn't look alike.

“That’s me. Ellie, right? Axton sent an Echo message to meet here…” AJ spoke as she looked around her at the garage with curiosity, it looked like a place she could probably call home one day if she ever found somewhere that was worth calling home; both Scooter and Ellie were very lucky to have been able to find places like this to call home.

“Yer friends are out gathering some things for me VH, should be back pretty soon as they just grabbed the last statue” Ellie informed her with a small happy grin, her words were soon followed up by the sound of a technical appearing in the front of the garage. AJ nearly attacked until she saw the grinning face of Gaige in the front and Maya hanging over the side.

She grinned and skipped out into the front, bracing herself as Gaige threw herself into a hug, nearly hitting the floor with a small burst of laughter as the mechromancer clung to her happily. “It’s boring here without you, you need to make sure that you don’t get grounded again”

“Or if I get grounded, you get grounded with me” AJ teased lightly and chuckled as Axton and Maya both gave her a stern look to make sure that neither of them did something stupid to get both of them grounded at the same time, it was hilarious to see how the heads of their group had become so protective over the both of them, although, it also meant that AJ may have a fight on her hands when she wanted to leave Pandora while the group continued with whatever fight they wanted to fight.

“Let’s get outta here and save a Raider” Salvador grunted at the two girls, he wanted to actually sleep in a proper bed rather than doing the bidding of someone he met fleetingly, they had been told they were officially Crimson Raiders but none of them really wanted to be part of a group that seemed to just sit around waiting for trouble rather than actively searching for it, he sighed and tugged both girls with him, with a nod to Ellie, and gestured for them to sit in the front of the technical while Zer0, Maya, and Axton placed the statues of Ellie around the garage.

They had actually been more than happy to get the statues for the mechanic, none of them liked that the marauders and bandits were mocking the woman and she seemed very happy with the possibility of having them around her home, so they got the chance to blow up bandits while Ellie got her decorations.

AJ grinned and patted Axton on the shoulder lightly in greeting as he returned to the driver's seat of the technical, a glance her way showed him that keeping her in Sanctuary seemed to have been a good idea, without saying a word, he started the vehicle and waited for the other three got into the back waiting for them to take off towards their destination.


	5. Chapter Five

“I see you didn’t end up punching Lilith” Axton commented as he drove along the road towards the Bloodshot Dam, he was anxious about getting Roland back and then getting back to Sanctuary so that the group could also rest and recuperate.

When he spotted AJ and noticed that she had changed and had a shower, he also looked at her eyes and relaxed when he’d notice that she must have managed a little more sleep than they’d been getting in the wilds of Pandora.

“Hm… I knew that if I punched her or shot her then you probably wouldn’t have caught yourself before aiming a swat at me again” AJ mused as she dug through her bag, ignoring the shocked look on Axton’s face; a small smile playing on her lips at how easy it was to make him speechless.

It was easy to see how Axton and Maya had become the leaders of the group with Salvador as their Right Hand and Zer0 as their Left Hand/Enforcer, while AJ and Gaige were the ones that they looked after, probably little siblings or sometimes their children with how much trouble the both of them got into. It was a dynamic that worked for them all, even Gaige hadn’t protested it, but AJ knew that if she pushed hard enough then Axton would probably swat her without thinking and either continue or freak out and pull away from them.

None of them could afford the dynamic to break.

Making a small noise of triumph, AJ pulled out the pistol that she had made for Gaige, it was Hyperion make like she usually worked with, but it had a Jakob’s firing rate and cartridge but had a firing pin that charged the bullets with shock damage. It wasn’t at the highest settings just yet, but the damage would still be enough to incapacitate their enemies for now.

“Here Gaige, I got bored and Marcus allowed me to tinker at the back of his shop, there were enough components around to sort out the pistol. My next mission will be an incendiary one for Maya when we all have the chance to relax there” AJ informed her as she gave the younger girl the gun, she smiled lightly as Gaige threw her arms around her in thanks before she started to look over it with a critical eye.

“Is it just pistols you deal with kid?” Axton inquired curiously, his attention mostly on the road as he spotted the Dam up front, but he did look to the young woman too.

AJ shrugged lightly as she put her pack back on and brought out her own pistol, she knew she was going to end up switching to her sniper quite quickly, but she’d need to have something that could fit inside the vehicle for now. “Pistols are my specialty, but I know enough about snipers and assault rifles to mess about with components of those. However, ask me to touch a shotgun or a launcher and I will probably blow something up even if there is no ammo in the guns”

Axton made a small noise of understanding as well a note to make sure he never let Sal convince AJ to try and sort him out a shotgun.

The small group drove up in front of the gate of the Dam and AJ made a face of distaste at the sight in front of her, she wasn’t fond of the idea of rescuing Roland, but she also hated the way the bandits decorated their homesteads, it made her wish she was back home. Axton signaled for the girls to be at the ready as he honked the horn at the gates.

Gaige made a noise of disbelief as they actually let the gate down, didn’t they check to make sure who of theirs were out and about and who was in? that would mean they wouldn’t get caught by people masquerading as bandits to get into the place. Especially since they had Roland, it meant their security should have been higher.

They drove a little closer to the gate before the six of them climbed out of the technical and went into defensive positions immediately as they inched forward and into the territory of the gang.

“We’ve been tricked! Kill ‘Em!” echoed around the territory, but then there was a pause “Grab the girl with the black hair! She’s the one Hyperion wants!”

The small group instantly went on alert as they shot whoever came near them, they tried to remain together as they fought the bandits, but a suicide bandit came too close for comfort causing the group to split up.

A noise of shock left AJ as she was surrounded and grabbed from behind before she could even think of using her gloves, a sharp blow to the back of her skull caused her to drop unconscious as a nomad lifted her up over his shoulder and carried her through the Dam while the other Vault Hunters were left to fight Bad Maw and the midgets he had with him.

-*-

With a small groan of pain, AJ woke up, flinching and curling up on herself at the pain at the back of her skull, she whimpered softly at the feel of something cold at the base of her skull where she had been hit and slowly tried to open her eyes.

“Easy soldier” A voice rumbled lightly before a damp cloth was pressed against her forehead.

With another grimace, AJ carefully opened her eyes, flinching at how the light made her eyes burn, she took a deep breath and counted to five, five times to keep from throwing up with the waves of nausea that had been going through her. Finally managing to open her eyes, she frowned in annoyance at the fact that she had been dumped into a cell with Roland.

“How long have I been out?” she asked him groggily, she wanted to push him away as he helped her sit up against the wall, having been dumped there and Roland unwilling to move her just in case he injured her more.

“About an hour?” Roland offered lightly as he moved away to sit back down on the cot that he had been resting on since they had dragged him to the Dam and started ordering Hyperion about for prices and such. “You’re the young lady who’s been sassing Jack?”

She let out a groan in response as she closed her eyes, nausea only passing a little before she opened them to look at the Raider closely, she had a feeling that she probably had a mild concussion so either needed a hypo as soon as or she needed to be kept awake until she could get one. Her eyes took in the cell around her and she grimaced again, looks like her mouth had definitely gotten her into trouble and she hoped that Axton wasn’t blaming himself for her capture.

“Aye, I’m not the best with authority figures” AJ sighed softly as she looked through the bars of the cell, her pack was lying just out of reach which caused her to pout, she hoped that they hadn’t touched it and just went back to fighting to try and kill her friends. She also hoped that Gaige would grab it if they were a little too late in coming to get them. “He blew us up just before his first Echo, and usually I tried to mutter quietly but he would still catch it; the main time was because he’d pissed me off and so did Claptrap so I snapped… it’s been pretty entertaining even though he wants to kill me himself”

“You’re an interesting one, soldier” Roland commented after a moment of uncomfortable silence between the two of them, he looked like he wanted to talk to her about respect and such but AJ just closed her eyes again, keeping her senses focused on any possible sign of the others coming after them.

“Like I said, I don’t do well with authority figures, only one I’ve listened to lately is Axton, and that’s only because he’s threatened to keep me from missions” She informed him and perked up a little as she heard the sound of gunfire echoing through the halls of the cells they were in. “Rescue’s here”

It only took ten minutes for the sound of footsteps and AJ turned her head, grimacing at nausea and headache, the grimace turned into a smile pretty quickly as she spotted brown pigtails and bright blue hair down the end of the corridor, she snorted lightly as she also caught sight of the Dahl banners in the background.

The small group soon rushed to the cell door, Gaige picking up AJ’s pack as she passed it, AJ opened her mouth to greet them but stopped as Roland sat up from the cot and addressed her friends, she would have rolled her eyes if it wasn’t for the headache and dizziness.

“Vault Hunters! Good to finally meet you in person. Hell of a job fighting those Bloodshots…”

Roland was soon cut off by a high-pitched whine that had most of the group looking at each other in worry, there was only one thing that made that kind of noise, and they had had to best them before on the train ride from hell.

With a small squeak of surprise, AJ lifted her arms up to shield her face as the wall of the cell exploded from the outside, she could see Axton moving to try and open the cell door as Roland calmly moved from the cot,

“This’ll take a second” He informed them casually which made AJ look at him daft, there was no way that anything Hyperion that had been sent to get Roland and AJ, would only take a second. Jack had been trying to kill Roland for five years and wanted to kill AJ slowly and painfully for her words against him.

He soon charged the Loader bot that appeared in the cell and tackled it to the floor without issue, but before she could call out a warning, Roland threw something towards another Loader, causing it to go flying back from an electrical explosion. Her voice caught in her throat as she tried to dizzily climb up when Roland was thrown back by a Bull-Loader. They all watched in horror, Axton trying to open the door, as Roland laid on the floor as if he had been injured, but all of them let out a sigh of relief as he used a Loader bot’s arm to gun down the last Loader to appear in the cell.

“Well that’s that” He commented as he climbed up from the floor, he moved to the side to help AJ up carefully.

Gaige slipped forward as Axton calmed down from his aggressive attempts to unlock the cell door, she carefully handed a Hypo over to AJ who sighed in relief, pressing the needle as close as she could afford to her spine. Another sigh escaping her as the serum did it’s work and soon aided in the removal of the headache and dizziness that she had been experiencing.

“Now let’s see about getting out of here?” Roland questioned as he moved away from AJ, a shout of worry and fear went through the small group as a constructor bot appeared in the hole of the cell, a blue light shooting through it and locking around the ankles of both Roland and AJ. “You gotta stop this thing!”

Both AJ and Roland gripped onto the bars to try and stop the constructor from grabbing them, but none of the group could afford to let lose any bullets just in case they hit their friend and their mission; Axton and Gaige move to work on the cell and let out shouts of frustration as the blue beams once again shot from the constructor and wrapped around the captives' wrists, pulling them free from the bars and out of the cell.

“let go of me!” Roland growled out as he fought against the beams.

AJ let out a small scream of annoyance as she struggled against what had grabbed her, she was soon dropped into a smaller cell with Roland instead of dangled by her ankles and arms as they moved through Dahl Dam.

“And **_that’s_** how Handsome Jack pays ransoms. Long time no see Roland, and look, it’s the mouthy witch that’s going to get her tongue removed”

The Echo cut off as Roland and AJ looked at each other, a little bit of worry entering their eyes as Roland called for the small group to follow them.

AJ still hated the Crimson Raiders, Lilith and Roland with a passion, but she hated the situation she was stuck in more, and she had a feeling that if she wanted to survive then she was going to need to work alongside the Raider to get out before Jack could get his hands on her.

“The bots aren’t going to listen to you” AJ pointed out to him faintly as she dropped down to sit in the cell, carefully poking at the bars with her foot and checking to see if she could dangle her legs free, but she had no luck so she pulled her knees to her chest.

She would always fight against those that tried to control her, but there were always situations where all the fight that she had would disappear, fear washing over her at the prospect of being tortured and killed. She would face bandits and nomads without fear, but she would never face Handsome Jack in person without fear.

“Well it’s better than just sitting down and giving up” Roland snapped at her, her eyes hardened at the snap before she looked away from him.

She was only nineteen, she was locked in a cage after being knocked out by someone who could have easily hurt her before taking her to the cell, she was in a cage with a man she already hated and now he was making her hate him even more without even realizing it.

“I’m not giving up” she spat at him furiously “I know my friends are going to come for us, I trust that they won’t let me die, I have my friends coming for me… where the fuck is yours?”

She smirked a little at the hurt that briefly flashed through his eyes before she turned back to watch the bots and bandits fighting, she watched as the scenery passed her. She may hate Dahl and Pandora, but she couldn’t deny that the scenery around her had a beauty about it, she knew that she had hit close to home, along with the rumors about what happened to Handsome Jack, her family also kept tabs on the original four Vault Hunters so she knew that they had practically abandoned Roland to fight with the Raiders alone.

“Hyperion took Roland and AJ?” AJ let out a small sigh at the sight of Angel in her head, she was a little glad that she wasn’t completely cut off from the AI “Motherf… Jack didn’t send Wilhelm, did he? Please tell me Jack didn’t send Wilhelm”

She wanted to laugh at the fact that Angel had to cut herself off from swearing again, but she was more focused on the fact that Wilhelm may have been sent after them. There was no way she could escape if Wilhelm was sent after them, Jack’s main enforcer was not someone to be messed with.

It took them ten minutes to arrive into a clearing where a giant Marcus was set out as some kind of shrine, and AJ let out a small snort at the fact that Marcus would be unbearable if he learned about what the Bloodshot’s had built in his honor, as she looked up at the shrine, she also noticed Roland do the same but he wasn’t able to keep in the groan of annoyance.

“He’s going to insufferable if he found this” He muttered under his breath and jumped a little at the small laugh that AJ released.

“Like he isn’t already” She chuckled and grinned at the confused look that Roland gave her “Ax grounded me to Sanctuary after we found your girlfriend, he asked her to take me back with her so I ended up hanging out with Marcus until Axton needed me again. He’s not related to me, but he and Maya are kind of the leaders of the group so I wasn’t going to dismiss his decision, just in case I gain distrust from the group at how well I can or cannot follow orders”

“That’s a good decision to make, however, in the Raiders, disobedience is met with harsher punishments, so you may wish to think your actions through” Roland informed her and was surprised at the venomous glare that he got from the ice blue eyes.

How dare he think that he could tell her what to do, he didn’t even know her and didn’t know if she had accepted the offer to be in the Raiders, they had just assumed that the newest surviving Vault Hunters would automatically want to join their little band of fighters.

“It’s a good thing I’m not a raider then” she growled at him and raised an eyebrow as he went to speak “You automatically assumed that we all wanted to be in the Raiders… we travelled to Sanctuary because Angel sent us to you, the others may be willing to stay and fight against Handsome Jack, but I want off this planet. I came here to earn enough to put Vault Hunting behind me and settle somewhere nice, I don’t plan to die on Pandora”

Roland stayed quiet at the rant aimed his way and watched as the young woman wriggled a little so that she was facing away from him, keeping her eyes and ears open for any sign of the gunfire calming down; she knew the moment that the guns settled, her friends would be there. Either that or they were both going to be taken to Jack and tortured slowly and painfully.

“Remind me to never introduce you to Tina” Roland muttered under his breath and rolled his eyes at the small look of curiosity and confusion aimed at him. “Kid I know, you’d both probably get on like a house on fire which is a scary thought… she’s a good kid though”

A breath of relief escaped both AJ and Roland as they caught sight of Axton in the giant doorway, followed by the others who looked a little worse for wear but determined to end their fight.

“Kill this constructor so we can get the hell outta here!” Roland shouted to the group as the constructor started to create bots, he felt a hand on his leg and looked down at AJ.

“Don’t shout anything like you were doing earlier, it will distract them” She informed him but glanced at the others who looked hesitant to shoot near the constructor holding them “Ax! The forcefield is all around, we won’t get hit by bullets, just light this motherfucker up!”

“Language!” Four voices echoed around the area before bursts of gunfire lit up the clearing, she knew that Axton, Maya, and Sal would scold her for her language, but she didn’t expect Roland to pipe up too.

“I’m not a kid ya know” she commented to Roland who rolled his eyes at her slight protest, his eyes focused on the fighting in front of him, he was impressed by how well the group worked together, but he could also spot moments where they left a small opening which must have been where AJ fit when she was beside them in battle.

“Could have fooled me” Roland shot back at her without moving his gaze away from the other Vault Hunters, at the same time missing the glare that she sent his way, one that promised pain the moment that she was able to.

She let out a small cry of worry as she saw Gaige’s shield break down, Zer0 moved beside the girl and easily picked her up, moving her to cover as he started shooting any bot that thought that they could aim at the vulnerable one. Soon she watched in fear as Axton’s shield broke but was soon covered as Sal and Maya stood by him to keep him protected until his shield could fix itself.

A small squeak of surprise escaped AJ as the cage tilted and then shorted, sending both its occupants tumbling to the ground as the constructor blew up. Climbing up from the floor, AJ nearly cried in relief as Axton wrapped his arms around her, she let out a breathless laugh of shock as she clung to the Commando, she was only released for a small amount of time before Maya pulled her into a short but tight hug followed by Sal and surprisingly Zer0 before Gaige jumped on her and refused to let go as she clung to her in fear that she would lose her.

AJ sighed lightly as she held Gaige, it was definitely going to be difficult leaving the planet if Gaige was still on Pandora, she gave the younger girl a proud smile as she was handed her pack and kissed her cheek softly before she stormed up to Roland and landed a harsh kick between his legs; ignoring the shout of her name from Axton.

“Insult me again Roland, and I will shoot your balls off” She threatened seriously as the Raider looked up at her in shock and pain. “You have no right to decide what I do, the only leaders I have are Axton and Maya, I am not a Raider so **_never_** threaten me with further punishment, and I am not a child so don’t treat me like one and never treat Gaige as one either… at least she and I are actually getting up off our asses and doing something on this hellhole”

With a flick of her hair, AJ spun on her heel and almost made it to the fast-travel machine closest before Angel spoke up in her mind and made her stop with a small sigh of annoyance.

“You saved Roland! The planet’s been waiting for a hero like you. Thank goodness Jack didn’t send Wilhelm” Angel spoke as Roland moved passed AJ; he wasn’t stuck with Angel in their minds like the others were so moved without the worry of walking into something while distracted.

Sharp pain through her ass made AJ yelp the moment that Angel was gone, and another one made her whine softly as she reached back and rubbed the sting away with a small pout but winced at the look that Axton aimed at her.

“He started it” She huffed softly but submitted a little with her eyes down so that she didn’t have to face the disappointed look that he was sending her, she bit back a smile at the sound of Gaige’s whisper asking Maya if Ax was going to do the same to her if she did something like that. “I swear Ax, I kept my temper around Lilith and would have done the same with him, but he made a quick judge of character with me decided to treat me like a child, he also threatened harsher punishments should I disobey him in the Raiders.”

“But ya aren’t a Raider lass” Sal pointed out lightly as he moved and placed a hand on Axton’s wrist lightly to calm him down.

“I told him that and he still decided to treat me like a disobedient child” AJ told him carefully and eyed Axton carefully before relaxing as the commando pulled her into another hug, this time, there was more desperation in his hug as he held her close. “I’m okay Ax, the hypo healed the concussion, the Nomad didn’t touch me except to put me in the cell and the constructor didn’t harm me… I’m okay”

Axton pulled away and looked her over closely before he sighed “I’m sorry I swatted you”

“Eh, I deserved it” AJ shrugged with a light smile aimed his way, she’d probably have gotten a lot more from her father by now, or from her aunt and uncles, so she wasn’t complaining about two measly swats from a man she had already started to see as a big brother. “Come on, let’s get back to Sanctuary so Gaige can get a shower and a change of clothes”

“Yes please!” Gaige piped up in hope which caused the group to smile and relax a little at the lack of fight that they would gain from the youngest of them about having a shower and changing before the next leg of their journey.


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tina appears!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have recently moved with my parents for the summer due to the lockdown and university ending for the term and also gained a job, so things will probably be fortnightly rather than weekly like planned.

The moment they landed in Sanctuary, Axton made the decision to send Gaige with AJ to get a shower while he and the older members of their group went to speak with Roland and Lilith, it was lucky that they did do that too, considering Roland wanted them to leave nearly immediately after they’d only just gone through the Dam to save his ungrateful self from his own mess up. Even Axton felt the small desire to hit the man and he had a feeling that AJ or Gaige would have given him another burst of pain in the worst area for a man if they knew how uncaring he was about them actually being able to sleep and getting cleaned up.

After each of them had a quick shower and change of clothes, they restocked their ammunition and hypo’s, even getting newer shields from Marcus who snuck two or three parts into AJ’s pack with the promise that he could sell her guns once she felt they were not good enough and she wanted to make new ones, she agreed of course, and now they were heading towards Roland’s friend so that they could blow up a train with the Vault Key on.

Maya had caught the other two up with information about the Vault and what was in it, as well as what Roland and Lilith believed it to be and what they wanted to do with it should they get their hands on it first; which made AJ scoff lightly but waved their attention off of her as they used the Fast-Travel to head out to Tundra Express.

None of the older members mentioned to AJ how Roland seemed to actually hate this part of the plan, something about a house and fire with AJ and someone else.

“So, we’re here to meet Mordecai then?” AJ commented and the group all turned to look at her with confusion which made her roll her eyes “Didn’t any of you actually read up on Pandora and the Vault Hunters before coming here?” at the looks she gained, she assumed no and sighed lightly “There were four Vault Hunters about five years ago? Maybe longer, but they were Roland, Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick. Brick left the Raiders some time ago because of disputes between him and Roland about how things worked and not long after Mordecai was being sent anywhere but Sanctuary. The rumor was that he was drinking more than Roland liked after Brick left so he kept him away from Sanctuary”

“How many rumors do you bloody know?” Axton asked her in shock as they all stopped for a moment to glance at her in confusion, and all they got back was an innocent smile as she started walking again.

“I’ve been alone for four years, learning information was the best way of passing my days” AJ shrugged, and it was the truth, after running, she spent most of her time learning what she could about the Vault Hunters because of their actions on Pandora, and she knew she would probably return to her birth planet at some point. “There is one rumour I’m not sure about though, apparently Brick and Mordecai were a thing which is why Mordecai took it so hard when Brick was kicked out of the Raiders, something to confirm with time I guess.”

“Don’t annoy him though AJ, if the man doesn’t want to talk then you leave him to it” Maya warned her gently and smiled a little at the nod of understanding from her.

The small group moved through the snow, each of them grimacing at being in snow once again considering how they started their journey to Sanctuary, jumping down from the cliff, they all headed to where the varkids were, and with the use of AJ and Maya’s weapons, they easily set a chain of varkids on fire before destroying the lot of them once they heard Mordecai over their echo.

“Hey Vault Hunters, welcome to the Crimson Raiders. Sorry you had to wake me up, I might have celebrated a little too hard last night after Bloodwing and I raided a Hyperion convoy. Ain’t that right Blood?”

Axton and Maya both turned to keep AJ quiet after the Crimson Raider comment, but they were both surprised when they noticed that she actually kept her mouth shut and didn’t look as insulted as she usually did when someone assumed, she was a Raider. The sound of a bird squawking made AJ’s smile widen a little, even though the others had no idea why there was a bird with Roland’s contact.

“Easy girl” Mordecai chuckled through the Echo as the group moved away from the dead varkids “So, a Hyperion train is speedin’ through the Tundra Express. If my intel’s good, and it usually is, the Vault Key itself might be aboard. My advice? Do what I do, steal the Key, get drunk, pass out… except the two _chica’s_ that are with you, I don’t agree with drinking young”

Gaige opened her mouth to argue with the man before AJ placed a hand on her shoulder with a small smile.

“He called us girls, _chica_ means girl in another language” AJ explained lightly and smiled a little brighter at the grunt of confirmation from Salvador.

“The lass is right, it’s me mother tongue that the man is speaking, and he just called you a girl lassie, that is all” Salvador reassured Gaige who slumped lightly, losing any fight that she may have given.

A small chuckle escaped AJ as she nudged Gaige “Usually it’s me arguing over the Echo, it seems my corruption of you is working out well” She started to chuckle again as Gaige grinned and the adults all grimaced as one.

When Roland came over the Echo, AJ mock gagged and started to make gestures with her hand which caused Sal to nudge her to stop acting like a child, they knew that she didn’t like him and it looked like Roland didn’t like AJ either. The mention of Tina made AJ perk up and grin a grin that none of them wanted to delve into.

AJ practically skipped through the Tundra Express, as they followed her behind curiously, she didn’t know exactly who Tina was, but it was obvious in the cage that Roland didn’t really want AJ meeting the kid that he knew; when she was revealed as a bombmaker, a small scary giggle came from both AJ and Gaige which caused shivers to run down the spines of the adults.

As they fought more bandits outside of Tina’s home, AJ squeaked as a shot came out of nowhere and hit the bandit closest to her, covering him in slag which AJ soon lit up with her incendiary pistol and sent a small wave and blew a kiss in the direction that the bullet had come from. She laughed as Mordecai then hit another close to her so that she could light it up again, this happened a few more times before Tina beckoned them into her home.

Blowing another kiss in Mordecai’s direction, she laughed brighter as a round hit the ground not too far from her foot in retaliation.

The group soon reconvened at the front of the cave and moved together into the home of the kid that Roland was both in worry and in awe of, and they soon realized why when they caught sight of a psycho strapped to a bar, a bomb taped to his hand while Tina skipped around him singing a children’s song.

“All around the Sta-actuas plant, the stalker chased the bandit. The stalker thought ‘twas all in fun” They watched in awe as Tina skipped towards her home before jumping on the switch that blew up the bandit in front of them “POP, goes the bandit!”

“Oh my god that was awesome” Gaige whispered to AJ who nodded quickly, not taking her eyes off of Tina and ignoring the looks that the adults gave over their heads, the two girls were the first ones to move as they headed towards the teenager's workshop.

“Oh Haii!” Tina greeted as she caught sight of them and brightened up as she jumped up and down in excitement, her eyes slipping over all of them in curiosity, she lingered on Zer0 who sent her a smiling face, and then she moved to Gaige and AJ who she brightened up a lot more at seeing.

It was probably because the two of them were closer to her age than the others and other than Mordecai she didn’t see many people. AJ’s only thought about Tina and Mordecai is that Mordecai must have been sent to the Tundra Express so that he could watch over Tina for Roland but also be out of Sanctuary while he drank himself into a stupor every night.

“Roland told me you were coming… I still owe him for all that buttcrap with General Rancid. So, you gotta hijack a train huh? Chiiilds play” She sang the end and caused both Gaige and AJ to grin wider at the younger girl, AJ’s eyes flickered over her clothing choices and smiled fondly since it was something her sister would have probably worn at Tina’s age. “Let me introduce you to my ladiessss”

Tina spun on her heel and ran towards the workshop behind her, her steps light and excited as she moved, AJ hesitated before she let the others move forward and looked around the area that was practically Tina’s front garden, it was a little cold and had more than one pile of blood there, which made her wonder how often the younger girl killed or if she ever got attacked.

She was soon pulled out of her musings by Axton clapping his hand on her shoulder “You’re staying here with the kid, we need to go pick up some things and I’m not entirely comfortable leaving the kid alone even if she has the sniper looking out for her. They know she’s helping Vault Hunters…” Axton told her carefully and waited for some kind of protest but was surprised when he got a nod of understanding. “I trust you to be able to handle yourself if anyone attacked”

“Just me or is Gaige hanging back too?” AJ asked carefully, Axton watched her for a moment before he looked over at Gaige who looked a little put out at having to actually leave the younger girl.

“Gaige, you and AJ are both sticking here while we grab the rockets, keep an eye on each other and try not to blow anything up” Axton ordered and rolled his eyes fondly as Gaige gave him a quick hug and stayed back, bouncing on her feet in excitement

“No promises” All three girls called after him as he left the cave and started to giggle in response to them being in sync.

“You’re the girl who’s been shouting at Jack, ain’tchya?” Tina questioned the moment they were alone, and AJ smiled lightly as they moved back into the warehouse and sat down on Tina’s bed as she started tinkering around.

“That seems to be the main question I get asked lately” AJ mused as she watched Tina and noticed Gaige also watching with curiosity in her eyes “But yeah, that’s me, nearly got myself kidnapped for it too”

Tina made a small noise of awe before her attention was drawn to Gaige working on Deathtrap, it seemed that that was the best timing that they had since AJ’s Echo made a notification of someone sending her a message.

**Jack: How does it feel to escape torture by the skin on your teeth little bandit?**

**AJ: How does it feel to be a jackass, princess**

**AJ: …sorry. I’m a bit pissed off at the Raiders, I shouldn’t keep pissing you off.**

**Jack: So, you do have some sense? Why couldn’t you have had that sense back in the beginning, you wouldn’t be on my shitlist then**

**AJ: You should think yourself honored, the only reason I have the sense now is because I’m on your shitlist.**

**AJ: Is there a reason you started messaging me, princess?**

**Jack: Just wondering how your ‘quest for justice’ is going.**

**AJ: Not my quest, Raiders can go fuck themselves. The only good one I’ve met is birdbrain.**

**Jack: You should really watch your language kid before someone cuts your tongue out.**

“Looks like we’re not the only ones that like surprising Axton by calling him a big brother” Gaige laughed lightly as she dropped down next to AJ and watched Tina as she kept an eye on the progress of their group.

“Ax will probably be confused but also enjoy that, he seems to be happy when one of us calls him that” AJ replied with a bit of humor in her voice, at least, she hoped she was right. She didn’t want Axton to just be putting up with them and calling him a big brother. She sighed again as her Echo made a noise but was surprised by who was messaging her this time.

**TheHunter: You fight good chica, how old are you and your friend?**

**AJ: I’m 21, Gaige is 14... Thanks for assist out there.**

**TheHunter: De Nada kid, no problem. You’re looking out for Tina, it’s the least I can do.**

**AJ: She’s an interesting one, but so bright.**

“Is that Mordy? Tell him to mind his business and get back to drinking! He’s funner when drinking” Tina asked and then ranted a little which caused AJ to laugh lightly as the blonde moved to stand in front of her, looking at her curiously.

**AJ: Tina says mind your own business and get back to drinking because you’re more fun drinking.**

**TheHunter: Dios mío, she’s a pain. But she’s a good’un. Keep her safe for me amiga.**

The outfit she wore was intriguing, and usually, AJ would have suggested changing into something less chaotic, but she couldn’t do that with Tina because the clothes suited her, they were perfect for her and her personality.

“Aye kid, he was just saying we fight good and asking how old Gaige and I are” she explained with a small smile “It looks like he cares for you kid... So how often do you blow bandits up?”

Tina brightened at the question and started telling AJ of her conquests against the bandits that lived around her own home, none of them even bothered thinking that Tina was a danger so they always thought they could go against her. But she had her explosives and she had Mordecai on her side.

While Tina started telling her of more of her ideas, Axton and the others had come back with the rockets and watched as Tina engaged them, but none of them could deny the request from Tina to gain her friends for a tea party. The could all see that there was something deeper than just a random tea party, and while AJ wanted to go out with the others to destroy the people or things hurting her little friend, Tina had given her a wide-eyed look and asked her to stay so they could continue their conversation.

Soon, AJ had learned the truth about what had happened to Tina and why she was so determined to have the tea party, the only thing that AJ could do was hug the teenager and frown as Tina seemed to melt into her arms; she was going to make sure that Mordecai started spending more time with the young girl.

“We’re back!” Gaige called out as the both of them moved away from each other, AJ smiled fondly at Tina and nodded gently in the reassurance that she didn’t think anything different of her for melting into the hug. She greeted her group with a bright smile, throwing her arms around Axton to greet him but to also show Tina that hugs were a natural thing to want, and followed the instructions that Tina gave them before she started towards the settlement to grab the bastard that had sold out Tina’s parents.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took longer than planned. I have Overlook and Oppurtunity written out but can't seem to write anything between each one.

For a moment, she thought about ignoring Axton as he called for her to fall back, but she decided to be smart and waited to land in step with the Commando, she wanted to kill the psycho immediately but painfully but accepted that she could go nuts on the bandits around him while drawing the bastard towards Tina so that she could be the one to get some semblance of revenge for herself and her late parents.

“I want to kill him Ax, want to completely destroy him but I know it’s not my place” AJ mumbled to Axton, she hated when young kids were targeted by the hell that was Pandora, they didn’t deserve the life that they were forced into because of the Hyperion corporation. The psychos and Marauders didn’t usually have families, they were dangerous to have kids around; but there were still civilians around that wanted a normal life, only to be destroyed by those that wanted power.

“I don’t really know why you do kid,” Axton muttered to her as his eyes swept across the area, he was shocked by how close the kid was living to a psycho she apparently knew; he would definitely have a few choice words for Roland once he managed to have a break that was longer than twenty minutes. “Why don’t you go back to stay with Tina? There’s less of a chance of killing him before Tina gets the honors"

AJ wanted to argue and be apart of the mission, but she knew that it was a lost cause so she nodded and did as she was told. Slipping passed the others with a small smile of reassurance until she was back at the cave, she expected Tina to be hyper about her chance of revenge but the young girl looked like she was close to crying.

So she did the logical thing, AJ moved forward and immediately pulled Tina into her arms, holding her close as the young girl cried into her chest. The last time she had to do this was when her sister was around Tina’s age and their mother had just left them, AJ stroked the blonde hair and whispered soft words of reassurance to her while still listening to her comms so that she knew when the others were on their way back.

“I want you to do something for me after your revenge Tina" AJ requested as the girl started to calm, Tina sniffed and swiped at her eyes as she looked up at AJ, her eyes still watery and red with emotion. “I want you to talk to Mordecai more, you need to have someone around to help you survive, not someone on a perch but someone living close by... okay? And hugs are a normal thing to want”

Tina looked like she wanted to argue but soon gave in to the request and nodded, she soon started to gain her happiness as she heard that the others were heading back, AJ pressed a kiss to the crown of the young girls head before readying herself for a battle.

“You’re cordially invited bitches!”

AJ rolled her eyes at the words of the younger girl and chuckled at the sight of annoyance on Axton’s face when he ran through and the psycho was caught in a wave of electricity, she had a feeling that her big brother would end up contacting the sniper to talk with Tina about her language.

The pyromancer stood at the mouth of the cave and frowned as she seemed to hear the rally cries of the psycho’s that must have been Fleshstick’s friends.

She nodded at Axton as they accepted the mission to keep the girl safe, before Axton could actually ‘start the party’, AJ quickly bounced from the mouth of the cave and gave the commando a puppy dog look before grinning in happiness as she let her glove on fire briefly and slapped the psycho across the face; relishing in his cry before she kissed Axton’s cheek and moved back to the mouth of the cave and started shooting at the idiots that thought that they could go against Vault Hunters.

A wave of fondness washed over her as Tina began to speak to her makeshift toys as if she was having an ordinary tea party like a child her age should have.

A pained groan escaped her as a marauder managed to destroy her shield and pierce her shoulder, but she smiled in amusement as a sniper took out his head; it looked like Mordecai liked her. She looked around her to check on the rest of the gang, but they were either behind her picking off strays that ignored her, or they were in front of her; none of them spotted her getting hit so she nodded resolutely and continued shooting at the bastards around her who thought that they could hurt their friend.

The psychos soon stopped coming and the troop moved back to Tina, who handed AJ a Dahl gun which AJ knew she would keep considering it was from Tina.

“I remember you kid! You should be dead!”

Ice ran through AJ’s veins at the words and she was ready to go straight to the asshole to slap him across the face again for saying such words to the sweet boy terrifying young girl.

“What an interesting point Mr. Fleshstick, Mr. Sparks! What do you think?” Tina spoke so calmly that AJ was proud of how she handled everything that was going on, she was impressed and would definitely be talking to Mordecai about staying with the girl to help her.

“No! I’m sorry I sold out your family! I’m sorryyyy…” His apologies were soon cut off by his own screams as Tina switched on the generator and electrocuted the psycho.

Axton looked even more upset and understanding at knowing more of a length of why AJ had been upset, Gaige was surprised but happy when Tina hugged her and thanked her for her help. Tina actually hugged them all before gasping in shock as she spotted AJ's shoulder, she quickly grabbed her favorite Vault Hunters hand and dragged her to sit on her bed before rummaging in the boxes under her bed for a hypo.

“Gurl, why didn’t ya tell anyone you got blasted?” Tina questioned and the group all turned to Axton who had a scowl on his face and his arms crossed, they all knew that AJ would be hearing about not telling them about getting hurt. As Tina grabbed the hypo and handed it to Axton, the little girl's Echo went off which seemed to surprise her, so she picked it up to read the message “Mordy says ta let the group know ya got blasted, he thinks ya won’t tell no one. I'll tell him we know"

“Tell him AJ says that he needs to move into the spare rooms here so you both have people close" AJ huffed in response to the sniper's assumptions and winced as the hypo was injected into her shoulder, she grimaced at the feeling of the wound stitching itself and rolled her shoulder, flinching slightly as Axton smacked the back of her head in retribution for not saying anything.

“He says... okay" Tina’s voice trailed off in confusion at the answer that she had gained from her silent guardian, she expected Mordy to say no like Roland said no, but the sniper agreed. She had someone to rely on now? Tina looked at AJ in shock and smiled “Thank you"

AJ nodded before she climbed up and gave the girl another hug, she was happy to know that Tina would have someone to look after her and that Mordecai would be close by to someone who wasn’t just Bloodwing; Mordecai could pick up where Roland had left off since the head of the raiders seemed to care more about the raiders than he did the young girl that he had apparently saved, yet allowed to live on the Tundra without proper guidance.

With a quick hug goodbye, the group left the cave and started to where the bridge was to blow up. AJ waved behind her to say goodbye to Mordecai and rolled her eyes as a shot hit the floor beside her.

“He should really not do that, he could hit you" Maya commented as she stayed beside AJ, Zer0 and Axton took the front while Sal and Gaige were behind them.

“I think he’s forgotten how to act like a human, he’s been a bird for far too long” AJ mused and grinned at the small chuckle that she gained from the siren. “I'll be okay Maya, but thank you for your worry"

A wide grin bloomed at the sight of a number of dead bodies on the floors around her, she shouldn’t be so happy about death but she knew that these were the ones that her small gang of friends had ended to draw Flashstick out so that they could lead the psycho to Tina and Tina could kill the bastard for selling out her parents.

Axton and Zer0 climbed up the ladder to the best vantage point for the bridge destruction as the others stood below to watch their backs.

“Boosh! Just poke their bellies when you want me to set the ‘splosives off. I gotta set em off remotely”

They all heard the bombs being armed and the sound of a train which was soon confirmed by Tina as she started to gain excitement about the train coming closer to the bridge, the moment that Tina called out about counting down, AJ and Gaige give each other knowing looks since they knew that Tina probably wasn’t going to be patient enough for it. Both girls started to snicker as they heard the bombs launch after the number nine, however, they all winced as Tina screamed through the echo in excitement at the carnage she was causing.

“Climb the pipe, to the train. Or you go insane. Wut-wut” Tina rapped and the others laughed slightly as they started off towards the pipe, towards their next part of the adventure.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try and make AJ less of a Mary Sue, slightly hard right now because I have a future plot point written out.

AJ squeaked as she lost her balance and nearly ended up on ice river below them, the only thing that stopped her from getting drenched was Zer0 as he quickly grabbed her by the wrist and tugged her forward to the bottom of the fallen bridge that they needed to climb.

“Thanks" she muttered softly to Zer0 who nodded in response and kept closer to her as they climbed up the incline.

It wasn’t just AJ that nearly lost their balance while walking up the icy metal of the bridge. Maya nearly slipped down a few feet but managed to grab the indents of the floor until Gaige helped her up; Axton nearly lost his footing when the snow underneath him gave way but was grabbed by Salvador and Gaige.

After the third time of AJ nearly falling, Zer0 put his sniper away and placed his hand on the small of her back to keep her up rather than letting her drop.

The whole group gave a sigh of relief as they reached the cliff, the destruction was quite shocking and most of the group found themselves hoping that there was no one on board to have lost their life due to the Raiders and their missions. The missions weren’t what the Vault Hunters wanted to do, they wanted to just get paid so that they could get on with their lives.

“Everyone ready? Keep your wits about you" Axton muttered as they all grabbed their weapons from their packs. None of them knew what they were about to face to grab the vault key so they all chose the guns that they assumed would do the most damage.

The group was surprised as they found an old outlook point and decided to quickly make sure that they were all fully stocked with ammunition and health, none of them wanted to see what would happen when their health’s hit zero. Hopefully, they would find ammunition in the bullymong piles if there were enemies to defeat and ran low.

“Careful lass" Sal grunted as he tugged Gaige away from a small explosion from the burning train cart next to them.

“Incoming" Maya called out as another explosion went off, but this time it was followed by a few gun loaders that caught sight of them and began to fire their weapons. AJ cursed under her breath, if they needed to fight against loaders then she was screwed, the only corrosive gun she had was the one Tina gave her and her nanos were fire which meant that the loaders were resistant to her.

The others were just going to have to rely on their own skill sets to help in the battle.

She let the others go before her as she dug into her pack to grab her gun from Tina and quickly ran after her friends as they continued to find loaders to fight. At least there weren’t sightings of humans that perished in the explosions.

“You okay lass?” Sal asked as he caught sight of AJ and pulled her out of the way of a piece of debris that was falling.

With a nod, AJ switched to her normal sniper that had no effects and shot at one of the shield constructors flying overhead.

“Needed to remove my fire weapons from my fast grab pocket.” She explained as the two of them caught up to the others in the group and readied themselves for the large open space that seemed to be ahead of them.

“Don’t worry, if Jack really wanted to protect the Vault Key, it wouldn’t be on a train. He'd have Wilhelm guarding it.” Angel spoke as she appeared in their sights again, the whole group continued to walk as they started getting used to the AI appearing in their vision.

Gaige and Zer0 spotted some areas that may hold ammo that they had been running low on, as Axton and Maya moved towards the compartment that they believed to be holding the key. Salvador and AJ chose a different compartment that seemed to be sunk into the ice.

As AJ and Salvador got closer to the compartment, the group paused as the compartment started to move, creaks of metal were heard as Salvador grabbed AJ's hand and tugged her backward while she seemed to freeze.

“Oh dear" Angel spoke in resignation as if their small group were dead before they even saw what was causing the noise and movement.

But AJ knew the moment that Angel mentioned Wilhelm's name, that the enforcer was the one that they would have to try and defeat to continue with their mission.

The train cart was thrown away as a large robot appeared from the ice.

“It’s a trap! The Vault Key is not on the train, abort the mission soldier! I'm sorry but you can’t handle Wilhelm, trust me" Roland called out through the echo.

Axton and Salvador looked insulted at the insinuations while the others readied themselves, all but AJ as she froze and backed away a little. Her hands shaking slightly as she gripped her gun tightly, she didn’t see the looks of worry on her friend's faces as she lost her ability to fight in the face of Wilhelm.

The group all broke up into different directions as Wilhelm moved towards them, AJ took cover as she tried to catch her breath, the bullets cracking around her made her want to hide rather than join the fight.

“Kid, Wilhelm nearly killed us all in New Haven without taking a scratch. If things get bad just run!” Lilith joined Roland in trying to convince the group to abort and run.

A cry caused AJ to startle as she heard Maya and Axton call out to Gaige, AJ popped her head over her cover and felt determination run through her as she ran to where Gaige was slowly losing her battle to stay alive, the others trying to get to her but were being waylaid by others. She stabbed the hypo into her friend and pulled her behind her as she shot at the constructors that appeared, leaving Wilhelm to the elder Vault Hunters

“Roland is wrong Vault Hunter. You _can_ defeat Wilhelm, I promise you" Angel informed them with determination, even though she seemed so resigned earlier.

AJ ignored the AI as she started taking aim at the shield surveyors that were giving the giant robotic man a helping hand with his shields.

The whole group started to run and dodge around the area, five of the six of them were aiming at Wilhelm, while AJ aimed at the constructors and surveyors, or she ran to the others to administer aid and ammunition. None of the group spoke up about AJ's lack of shots at the bigger enemy, but they did give her worried looks as she kept her head down and ignored them all, she had a reason for freezing, but none of them would understand those reasonings.

With one last shot from Gaige, a shudder seemed to go through Wilhelm before he exploded right before their eyes and AJ dropped to her knees on shock and exhaustion. The others all slumped in relief as the clearing went silent.

“You killed Wilhelm? Holy hell Jack doesn’t stand a chance" Roland spoke up through their echoes as Gaige moved to AJ's side, placing her hand onto her friends’ shoulder as the others moved about to pick up the loot that had been dropped throughout the battle.

AJ shook her head at Gaige as the younger girl made a move to speak about what had happened.

“Wilhelm dropped a power core. Be sure to grab it, my sensors tell me it is one of a kind. If you bring it to Roland, Sanctuary shields may never need a power core again" Angel instructed as Maya found the core and pocketed it without question.

“whoa, never seen a power core like that. The one you got from Reiss is nearly burned out, why don’t you bring it back here. You may not have found the vault key but at least Sanctuary will be safe a little longer thanks to you.”

The different voices appearing were starting to give AJ a headache as Roland finished his echo and then Jack’s voice popped up and a wave of anger washed over her. But for once, AJ was too tired to say anything to the head of Hyperion.

“Wow, bravo! Cheers! High five. Slow clap" It was easy to hear the sarcasm in the man’s voice as he actually slow clapped for the six of them. “You got the damn power core, didn’t you? You’ve been warned. The kid gloves are coming off. Tighten up the big boy pants because things are gonna get really, really bad for you Vault Hunters"

They all looked to AJ as she stayed quiet for once and frowned as she just silently climbed up from the floor and started off towards the fast travel that would take them back to Sanctuary.

“Sorry about the bad intel everybody. I really thought the Vault Key would be on that train. I'll make it up to you later, next time I'm in Sanctuary the beers are on me.”

A tiny smile flitted across AJ’s lips, but it didn’t take long for her to go back to being expressionless as she activated the fast travel and appeared back in Sanctuary.

“Wilhelm nearly defeated the other Vault Hunters a couple of years ago. You have proven yourself to be even stronger than them. Well done" Angel praised as the group arrived at Sanctuary.

Before they could make a move to where the power core for the shields were, AJ moved to the quick-change station and got out of the wet clothes so that she could be comfortable again. Gaige saw what she was doing and followed her lead before the others decided to follow suit and then head down to Jessup and the others so that they could complete the mission and finally get some rest.

The six of them made their way through the streets of Sanctuary, ignoring the people around them as they gave their praises for their actions.

“AJ…” Axton started carefully as they moved through the town, the group all knew that the man was going to talk to the young woman about her freezing and being unable to fight against the robotic man that was their mission, but one look from her kept the man from voicing the rest of the question.

As they reached the building that kept the power core, Maya nodded to the Raider as she handed the power core over to him and watched as the core was switched, waiting for it to power up the shields. Axton expected some kind of comment from AJ at the small shot at Hyperion tech from the Raider but she stayed silent, she was beginning to worry the group as she remained silent after meeting Tina.

“Okay, I think we’re in business…” The Raider’s voice trailed off as it looked like shots of power surged through the shields, the whole group stirred uneasily as they looked at each other in worry at what this meant.

“Hey, you know. I think it’s finally time to tell you that little secret” Jack spoke, an air of smugness in his tone as he spoke. “Angel’s working for me”

The entire group shuddered at the secret that was revealed to them, all of them went on guard the moment that Jack mentioned Angel, and all readied themselves to fight.

“Lowering Sanctuary’s shields Jack” Angel seemed to have a lot less emotion in her voice as she spoke and followed the orders of Handsome Jack. “Executing Phase Shift”

A noise crackled through their echoes before the ‘power core’ seemed to give out a new wave of energy and the shields began to collapse around Sanctuary. Gaige grabbed AJ’s hand as they quickly loaded their guns, ready to fight against whatever came after them, now that the shields were down and they were open to Hyperion’s attacks.

“Nicely done Angel! Now, let's kill us some Vault Hunters” Jack mused, smugness and happiness in his voice as he thought about killing the group that kept defying him.

“What the hell? Did something just get through the shields?” Roland exclaimed in shock, AJ and Gaige ran ahead of the group as they all realized that things were definitely going to go downhill.

“Everybody, I’ve got a really bad idea! Scooter! Get Sanctuary in the air. Roland, get me some Eridium!” Lilith ordered

As the group ran through the town, Gaige and AJ gasped and squeaked in surprise whenever they got covered in blood and cuts, the two girls pouted slightly at the fact that they had only just changed into some clean clothes and now they were going to need to pay more money again. The ongoing conversations were lost on them as they focused on avoiding the shots that were aiming to destroy them, Axton grimaced as his shield was hit and he was jostled to the side.

Heading towards the center of town to Scooter, Gaige and AJ quickly pulled out their own tools as Scooter seemed the be having difficulty with some of the switches in front of him. AJ headed to the first ignition primer, while Gaige headed to the last switch for the mechanic. All of them watched in awe as the mechanism of Sanctuary seemed to expand out of the ground.

Axton grabbed AJ’s shoulder when they heard about Roland and made her stay in a bit of a sheltered area with Maya as the other four disappeared to grab the Eridium that Lilith needed.

“You only survived that train ride because _I_ wanted you to. Five years ago, Roland and his friends opened the Vault because Angel and I tricked them into doing it. Everything you Vault Hunters have ever done… that’s part of my plan. I am such a Rockstar”

Rather than stay where Axton wanted her to stay, AJ slipped away from Maya, ignoring her calls to return to her, and ran through the streets, ducking as shots rained around her so that she could quickly run into Marcus’ store. Marcus looked up at her shocked before a small glimmer of relief entered his eyes at the sight of her.

“Need parts little one?” Marcus asked her, he seemed to be calm in the situation that they were in, but the both of them knew that the other was panicking about the shields being down and people dying right and left of them all.

AJ nodded at him as they moved into the back of the store quickly, Marcus ushered her into a safer place before handing her a small box of things that he was going to give her at a later date, she would be able to create her guns if things went wrong.

Jack was an unknown, none of them expected the man to have wanted them all to have survived the train crash so that he could continue with his plans to destroy the Crimson Raiders.

“Thank you, Marcus” AJ thanked softly, the last battle of theirs before the core was still playing on her mind, a purple glow started to form around the pyromancer, her eyes went wide as she looked to Marcus in shock.

Her hands flew up to her face as the purple surrounded her and she was phased off of Sanctuary and seemed to land at the gate where they all had entered the town.

“Sorry killer. That was an accident. I’ll see you on the other side though, I promise. Hit it Scooter”

The group looked around them in confusion at where they had ended up, but then Gaige spotted Sanctuary and the group of them turned their attentions to the city that slowly started to rise into the air as the mortars continued to aim and land on Sanctuary.

Gaige and AJ chuckled softly at Scooter and his catchphrase as they continued to watch the city move, they heard the words that were passed between Jack, Roland, and Lilith and slumped slightly in shock as well as relief at what they had just survived.

Zer0 moved forward to check the bridge that they would have usually used to get to Sanctuary while they all stiffened at the reappearance of Angel in their sights.

“I know you’re angry at me right now,” Angel started and hesitated as AJ and Gaige muttered “you bet we are”, “but we don’t have a lot of time. I’ll explain everything, just get to The Fridge. It’s the only way to reach the Highlands. I detect Lilith might have phased your city there”

The small group sighed again at the fact they couldn’t rest, but they all headed out of the area once again, splitting into three groups to drive to the entrance of the Fridge. AJ avoided Maya and Axton and decided to sit with Zer0 to drive, Zer0 would allow her her silence so that she didn’t need to speak about what had happened with Wilhelm; or her disappearance act to Marcus. Her gun parts were now in her pack so that she could keep them close to her while they headed through the Fridge.

“I love the way you Vault Hunters just up and trusted Angel. Never occurred to you that she was working for me, did it? I dd the same thing to the last four Vault Hunters, but I’ll be honest… tricking you guys this time? Way funnier”

“Just shows that Angel has a trustable personality, unlike some jackasses” AJ muttered quietly as Zer0 drove, thankfully she seemed to have not been heard as they drove to Three Horn Valley. A shiver ran through AJ at the memory of being grabbed by the nomad in the Dam when they tried to save Roland from the bandits that had surprised him.

The moment that they drove through the entrance to Three Horn Valley, Jack’s voice appeared through the echo which caused AJ to sigh tiredly, none of them needed to constantly hear the man’s voice as they tried to head to Sanctuary; they wanted to find somewhere safe to sleep and clean up a little. Being covered in someone’s blood and guts was not a fun way to spend a day.

“Hey, thanks for taking the bait and grabbing the power core. It was hard to concentrate on charging the Vault Key, what with Roland’s buddies attacking my Eridium mines.”

The whole group scrunched their noses in distaste at the idea of Eridium mines, especially since Jack was the one mining them.

“Let’s keep driving Zer0” AJ suggested quietly as her eyes flickered around them to watch for enemies or loot around the area, she didn’t particularly want to head anywhere else, but she had a feeling the Axton was enjoying being part of a group that had missions to carry out; a group that had order.

They drove until they stopped behind Maya’s runner, Axton and Salvador were killing off skag’s while Maya and Gaige were waving the other two over to them. Zer0 disappeared from the runner so that he could join the men killing the skags while AJ moved to stand with Maya and Gaige; their eyes gazing around them warily.

“You’ll be able to reconnect with your friends after you get through The Fridge” Angel informed them; Gaige could pick out a note of apology in her voice as she spoke to the group that she had just betrayed.

A sudden shot made AJ squeak in surprise as she was hit in the shoulder and flung backward as a Crazed Marauder shot her, her shield nearly breaking with one shot. Gaige and Maya instantly took up arms and began shooting at the people that decided to shoot at their friend.

Zer0 used his sniper and began to pick off those that were above them, AJ hid behind cover as she rubbed at the shoulder that had just been hit by the bullet even though it had been stopped by her shield. She really needed a better shield to survive what was happening in the insane world around them.

“Sorry” AJ apologized softly to the others as Axton tugged her up from the floor, he pulled her into a brief hug before moving around the campsite so that they could head into The Fridge and go to Sanctuary; although, it looked like they needed to sleep in The Fridge for the night.

“Keep your wits about you kiddo” Axton warned her carefully as he patted her good shoulder and led the group up the different levels, each of them had their guns out to stop from getting hurt again.

A small squeal of intrigue escaped Gaige as she spotted shiny gold crystals and started to hit them, gaining gold crystals that seemed to increase the money they had, the crystals seemed to be worth quite a bit more than they all expected. The whole group left the four crystal mounds to the youngest Vault Hunter so that she could send the money to her parents once they settled down somewhere safe.

“We’re not friends anymore, are we?” Angel spoke, a small hint of sadness in her tone as she spoke, and the youngest women in the group both looked at each other with a small frown. Both of them were annoyed and slightly upset by Angel going against them, but they also still liked the AI; she was sweet and entertaining to listen to. “Son of a… witch”

AJ glanced up from where they were gathered and wasn’t even surprised by the ice that surrounded the doors, the weather was always fluctuating so she the doors icing over seemed like it was more of a natural thing rather than a freak occurrence.

“The door’s iced over. Let me help you with that” They all looked uneasily between them before backing away from the sudden flames that erupted from the pipes near the doors.

The ice slowly melted to help them get through the door, none of them knew what they were about to face as the doors opened so they kept their guns up until they ended up in a giant area where there were some machines to load up with ammo and health.

Salvador looked intrigued but also disgusted by the giant header above a large set of doors, the ‘Slaughterhouse’ looked like it would be interesting fun but also a hell that probably shouldn’t be allowed to run.

“Shall we camp for the night?” Maya suggested lightly as she looked around the group.

“Maybe not here? If we stay here then visitors to the ‘Slaughterhouse’ might pass us and we don’t really want to risk getting into fights while also trying to rest up after everything we’ve just been through” Axton figured as they spotted the other set of double doors and moved towards them.

“I’ve been following Jack’s orders from the beginning. Jack modified the power core you found to have a Hyperion Network uplink. Through it, I was able to access Sanctuary’s defenses and lower them. It was all… part of Jack’s plan”

Zer0 had a little frowny face at the idea of Angel being used, but also the group being used. They all started to notice weird experiment kind of people and quickly aimed and released their ammo into the experiments around them.

“Do you think it’s safe to sleep around here?” Gaige asked warily as she looked around them, her eyes moving to figures that seemed to be frozen alive, she swallowed and stayed closer to the eldest of the group.

“Probably not” Axton admitted before he sighed and looked around them to find a smaller building that seemed to have a strong defense, “but we need to sleep, we’ll stay in there and swap between shifts to watch over us”

“You aren’t going to let Gaige and I take a shift, are you?” AJ questioned and smiled a little at her friends as he shook his head in agreement, he knew it was being overprotective, but he wanted the girls to sleep since they were the youngest of the group.

With a small huff of resignation, AJ moved into the building that they suggested and moved right to the back of the room so that she could curl up in the corner, without cleaning up, AJ put her things on the floor and curled up under her blanket. Although, she was surprised when Gaige curled up into her, adding her blanket to the bottom one so that they had extra heat.

“Go to sleep young ones” Maya ordered her softly and nodded gently as both girls seemed to let the sleep take over them so that they passed out in moments.

**[Jack] You got lucky again, didn’t you little bandit.**

AJ had woken after a few hours and pushed for Salvador to sleep rather than sit for a shift, she started playing about with her guns until she heard her echo buzz to signify a message from someone, she was tempted to leave it so that she could wallow in her thoughts in peace but sighed silently as she picked it up.

**[AJ] I guess? What do you want Jack?**

**[Jack] To see if you feel lucky, kitten. At least, I still get to kill you myself.**

AJ thought about messaging back, but instead, she ignored the message this time and put her echo down, fiddling with her guns again to keep her mind awake and off of the events of the previous day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be skipping The Fridge section of the game, it's probably my least favorite part of the game alongside a certain character death.


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fridge was decreased into very little, mainly due to how hard it actually is for me to find the energy to even play that part of the game, let alone watch/type it up

When Axton had woken up the next morning and noticed that it was AJ that was taking watch, he had been a little annoyed that she and Salvador had gone against his wishes to let the young woman sleep instead of being on watch. There were four adults to take shifts, Axton didn’t want the two youngest members of their crew to have to go without sleep just in case their attitudes went worse and the adults became even more protective of them because of lack of sleep.

What worried him though, was that AJ ignored him slightly in the morning, and stayed silent as they woke the others and packed up.

Axton and Maya shared a glance between them as AJ didn’t really speak, she even stayed silent when Gaige tried to talk to her, her eyes stayed focus on The Fridge as they traveled through it; every time they came across a ‘Lab Rat’, she would go a bit more withdrawn. The only thing that made her react was when Angel would continue to speak to them.

They knew that it made the young woman angry whenever Jack or the Raiders were mentioned, but it was a shock to see how much anger flashed across her face at the comment about Angel being used by Jack and having to manipulate people on his behalf.

“Do you think the Vault opening was before or after the scar?” Axton asked AJ, he was curious about whether or not he could get the young woman to talk to him as they walked through the underbelly of Pandora, they weren’t really impressed by the area that they needed to travel to because Lilith messed up and phased them out of Sanctuary. Although Gaige was pretty happy to encounter creatures that had the same gold crystals that they’d found at the melted doors, she and Salvador enjoyed the exploding nature of them.

But none of them appreciated the icy conditions of the place.

“After” AJ answered softly as they walked, she knew that the others were confused so nodded for Axton to explain what they were talking about, the moment that he finished; AJ continued with her answer to Axton’s question. “Not sure if he really was cowardly or trying to kill Lilith and Roland while hoping to open the Vault at the same time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he used it as a way to kill two Rakks with one bullet, he seems to be pretty overconfident like that”

The group split into threes, one half of them kept an eye on the horizon, while the other half kept an eye on the sky because of the large amount of Rakk’s that they had around them.

AJ rolled her eyes again as she caught sight of the ‘Dahl’ sign again, but this time Axton gave a small sigh of relief rather than a look of annoyance when she reacted to the Dahl sign, it meant that she was coming back to herself.

All six of them faltered and startled at the admittance that the key was with the AI, none of them really wanted to go and fight against the head of Hyperion, they were just following orders for now. Axton was relaxed at having some routine, Maya wanted to find information about sirens which Tannis was probably the best person to ask, yet she hadn’t been able to talk with her. Zero and Sal weren’t open in admitting why they were there while Gaige wanted a safe place and money to send back to her parents that had saved her life. AJ wanted to leave Pandora so that she didn’t have to go against Handsome Jack while the man wanted to kill her.

AJ and Gaige wanted to trust the AI, but they were all still a little wary about putting their faith in her again. At least this time they haven’t got Jack constantly talking to them.

The moment that they made it to the Highlands, the whole group let out sighs of relief as they felt the obvious change in temperature, the ice was melting as the weather was getting drier and warmer, they traveled up the steep incline and all sighed in relief as they reached the peak and looked over at the Highlands.

They continued down the path, looking around them cautiously since Angel was sure that this was where Sanctuary was going to reappear, they assumed that it would have reappeared by now but there was no sign of them. However, there were a few of them that shuddered as energies began to swirl around them, pulling up debris as a cloud of purple-black smoke appeared in the skies before Sanctuary appeared in the skies in front of them suddenly.

“Annnd, I’m awesome.” Lilith breathed through the Echoes as she and the city appeared in the sky, the others looked around each other and looked slightly relieved at the idea of being able to get to a fast travel station so that they could get back somewhere to get out of the clothes that were covered in blood, guts, and debris. Gaige and AJ just wanted to get clean, they were feeling more aggravated with every hour that they were covered in dirt. “Hey, killer. I phased the city. No big deal. Find a way back here as quick as possible”

They had all frowned a little at how smug she sounded considering she had somehow ended up conveniently sending the group of Vault Hunters away from Sanctuary as she phased.

“Can I hate her now?” AJ asked Axton softly, the small group smiling in amusement at the fact that the woman was speaking out about the Raiders again, none of them liked how quiet she had gone though.

“Now that Sanctuary has reappeared, you can use any fast-travel station to get back to the Crimson Raiders, there’s one behind you” Angel spoke through their Echoes again, they turned around to look at the system that they had walked passed when they went for the vending machines to gather more ammunition.

“Watch for the stalkers” Maya warned the others as she spotted the invisible creatures over the barrier behind the machines. Salvador went to the fast travel as the rest of them watched the creatures carefully, a grunt of annoyance was what caused the others to look over at the short man.

“Bloody tech ain’t linked” He growled in annoyance and kicked the tech before shaking his foot at the pain that went through him

“The phase blast must have taken Sanctuary off the fast-travel network” Angel explained, a hint of worry in her voice before she went silent for a brief moment “Okay… head to the Eridium Extraction Plant nearby. I think I know how to get you back to your friends.”

Gaige watched Axton and Maya carefully as the both of them seemed to have some kind of silent conversation between them and rolled her eyes lightly before she noticed that Angel had logged the place onto their Echoes, she took AJ’s hand and tugged her away from the group, before the four adults could notice; the two girls were gone and shooting at stalkers to clear the path.

“You know, I didn’t lie to you about everything, you really are the only people who can stop Jack. Roland, Lilith, and Mordecai… he defeated them long ago. They can help you reach him, but in the end… it will be you who brings Jack down” Angel speaking to the group of them, caught them by surprise, and so did the announcement that the group of them were going to be the ones to end the reign of Handsome Jack

“AJ!” Axton shouted in exasperation as he pulled his gun out to catch up to the two girls, he shouldn’t really be surprised by the lack of enemies around them, the two girls getting rid of the surrounding stalkers before the other four could catch up to them.

“That was actually Gaige that headed off first” Salvador pointed out to the commando as they traveled after them, grinning in amusement as they managed to catch up to the girls that had just gotten rid of a nest of stalkers.

“On your six!” AJ called out to their group as the four adults moved over to the edge of the cliff that she had Gaige had just jumped down, the appearance of Loader Bots caused them all to start shooting.

Axton dropped down beside the two of them and gave Gaige an unimpressed, and stern scowl. He raised an eyebrow at AJ as AJ tugged Gaige behind her with a protective glare on her face, her arms crossed over her chest which caused the others to chuckle softly at how much of a big sister, the young woman had become. The last time that Axton had a look on his face was when AJ had kicked Roland where it hurt and she was going to keep Gaige protected even though she knew that Axton would never hurt her.

“AJ…” Axton started, his lips twitching softly at the stubbornness from the elder girl in front of him. He could see that she wasn’t going to back down, so his eyes flickered over to Gaige who was hiding sheepishly behind AJ “Want to explain tech?”

Gaige smiled lightly at the nickname that she was given by the commando, she ducked her head and shrugged lightly, she knew that the adults were probably going to suggest that they split into two groups so that AJ and Gaige were still at the fast-travel station, but she wanted to be a proper part of the team. She wondered what things would have been like if they hadn’t gained the bonds that had developed since the train crash at the beginning of their journey.

“You’re all going really protective” Gaige explained carefully as they looked around at the others, she wanted to make a small point to them “I saw the looks you shared… you and Maya were debating having us stay there or not. We’re both part of this team Ax, we can fight just as well as you. I may be fourteen, but I was hired to be a Vault Hunter for a reason, just like AJ was, and just like you four were. Why do you keep treating us like kids?”

It was a question that had been playing on all of their minds since the moment that Axton had first scolded AJ for speaking against Handsome Jack.

“The truth is, I don’t know" Axton admitted to them all with a small shrug as he tried to think through his answer carefully. “On the train, you both just acted so frustratingly childish, AJ, you acted like someone a lot younger than twenty-one and with Gaige as your partner in crime, I felt like I needed to put a stop to that the moment that you both started being juvenile... when you grabbed Gaige and protected her, and then started to become petulant with Claptrap around... it made me keep wondering if that was how my sister would have reacted in similar situations and she was older than you both... I practically raised her myself so treating you like I have felt normal"

“We're a family unit lass" Sal explained to Gaige gruffly “When you two are around each other, you act years younger, and so we end up treating you like that. We want you safe because if we lost one of you, this group would probably fall apart"

“Real maturity/Has nothing to do with age/It’s about actions” Zer0 spoke up which caused both girls to look between them and blush softly at being called out about how their actions made them seem like children to the group.

AJ looked between the group that she had become a family with and sighed as she ran her fingers through her hair, grimacing at the bloodied and dirty knots that she had. “I’m not twenty-one” she admitted to them all and smiled a little at the looks of surprise that the others had “I’m nineteen when I started to end up on the radars of people, I made out that I was twenty-one so people assumed that I was more mature for missions and such”

Gaige grinned and jumped on AJ, giving the elder girl a massive hug, she seemed to be a lot happier at the fact that AJ was closer to her age, even though it was only three years. The adults all exchanged looks as they realized that it explained a lot of the young woman’s actions since she did react younger than twenty-one.

“How have you ended up as a Vault Hunter _muchacha_?” Salvador asked her curiously as he eyed the pyromancer carefully.

AJ sighed as she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly “I ran away from home” everyone looked at her shocked. “My father is a good man, but he’s also a terrifying man and I witnessed his temper at the wrong possible time; so, I ran, and I became a bounty hunter and then a Vault Hunter that was hired by Hyperion”

Axton eyed the pyromancer carefully before he nodded as a thought popped into his head. “We’ll try and keep from treating you two like children, but you both need to understand that we each have never really handled teenagers before but have handled children; it will probably be an automatic reaction for us to react to the age gap”

Both girls looked between each other before they nodded in acceptance.

“Maybe we should make a list of things to avoid?” Gaige suggested before she took AJ’s hand and tugged her onwards on their mission to get to Sanctuary

It was a strange change of scenery as they passed the Hyperion outpost and entered the area of the extraction plant, the jagged, rocky, grassy terrain become crisp clean buildings and roads that signaled a Hyperion facility. And, it seemed that Angel sensed their entry as she appeared in their sights again.

“If you cross the river and steal a supply beacon, we can get Sanctuary back onto the fast-travel network. I promise. Little as I’m sure that means right now”

AJ and Gaige shared a look, neither of them were happy with Angel for her deceit but she was being used as a tool by Jack, so they didn’t really have any hatred aimed her way, and a quick look at the other four suggested that they also had the same feelings.

As Angel spoke, the group started towards the Hyperion facility and immediately went into defensive or offensive positions as they heard gun’s being fired and the tell-tale sound of the shield surveyors heading their way.

“For a Hyperion facility, it’s not as heavily guarded as I assumed it would be” Gaige spoke as they shot at the few loaders that were being created and sent their way, AJ looked around them and agreed with her; Hyperion was supposed to be a bigger threat to them and yet they weren’t being overwhelmed by enough Loaders to destroy the six of them.

Maybe if there was just one of them entering the facility, it could be a problem, but since there was six of them, it was easy pickings until an EXP-loader took out the bridge controls, which was confirmed by Angel as if she sensed the facility mainframe sparking for a moment and losing that area of power.

Zer0 was the one to find their alternate route across the river as Maya and Sal looked around for ammunition and health. One by one, they each climbed the area that loaders had been sent to, which just confirmed that they were heading in the right path.

This time, it was AJ that found better shields for her and Gaige so she managed to discreetly switch the better one with Gaige, a wink being sent the mechromancers way as AJ clipped the weaker one to herself and pressed the button of the cargo bridge. They waited as Zer0 clicked the button to allow them across again and then dropped down as they reached the other side.

“Keep your wits about you, this is going to get dangerous” Axton warned as they watched the doors open and all of them ducked behind the nearest blockades to switch guns to something that would destroy a constructor easier.

The constructor actually managed to give them a bit of trouble, but with Zer0 and AJ taking out the shield surveyors, the constructor had limited protection and fell to the combined efforts of the rest of the group within moments.

“Do you see those Lunar supply shots? We need to steal a lunar supply beacon and get the moonbase to send you an uncalibrated fast-travel unit. You can use that to get Sanctuary back on the fast-travel network. Simple. Except not at all.”

The small group followed their orders from Angel and headed into the area that their reward would be dropped, none of them even thought to put their guard down as they inched into the more open and grassy terrain. They all tried to get their bearings as they neared the supply beacon, only for the ground to start shaking around them and a giant thresher to appear, swallowing the beacon whole as it came up from the surface.

Gaige giggled softly at the tone of voice that Angel had when she asked about the beacon, all of them rolling their eyes a little before they started shooting as fast and damaging as possible.

Axton released a small call of worry as Maya went flying backward from a thresher hit, AJ released her fire at the thresher as she rushed to Maya’s side, giving her a hypo and pulling her behind a crate as her shield began to repair itself.

After ten minutes of ducking, dodging, and shooting, the six Vault Hunters dropped to the floor in exhaustion as the Thresher finally fell due to their bullets, and the loaders stopped appearing to kill them. Sal struggled to stand up for a moment before he regained his bearings and picked up the beacon.

“You’ve got the beacon? Good, we can use that to request a unit from the moonbase. You’ll need a quiet place to set up the beacon. Head to the town of Overlook. Thanks to Hyperion’s mining operations, the people of Overlook suffer from the skull-shivers. They won’t disturb us”

“Skull-shivers?” Gaige asked curiously as they all picked themselves up and gingerly headed towards the town that they had been sent to, the Highlands being a lot more idyllic than the places they’d been so far.

“They are like migraines, but constant” AJ explained to her, AJ knew what migraines were like since she often felt pray to them, but she always knew she was lucky because she didn’t suffer from the skull-shivers. She flinched with a small noise of surprise as Axton caught her arm with a hypo, the flicker of his eyes to her hands made her aware that he’d noticed that she’d gone over the safe timeslot that she had with her gloves and probably burnt her hands. “the constant drilling has caused their whole bodies to feel like it’s vibrating all the time, and their skulls feel like they are about to shatter”

Gaige nodded in understanding as they walked through the small enclosed path towards the Highlands, and AJ sent Axton a small smile of thanks before walking in silence. Until their silence was broken.

“Argh! This is so frustrating! Y’see, this is what I don’t get about you bad guys. You know the hero’s gonna win, but you just don’t die quickly. Example…”

“We really don’t want to hear an example Jack” AJ sighed and was surprised when the Hyperion boss actually cut off what he was about to say, the others looked at her slightly annoyed but also surprised that she didn’t insult him outright. “I’ve told you before, we’re just doing a job”

“But it’s such a good example pumpkin, it explains what I’m going to do with you, except, instead of scooping your eyeballs out with a spoon in front of your friends, I’m going to turn the spoon against them while they watch you slowly burn alive. Anyway! The moral of my original example is that you’re a total bitch”

AJ narrowed her eyes lightly at the story from the man “As you have told me before, Handsome Jack _sir_. Language”

Jack actually chuckled over the Echoes’ although, it wasn’t one that was full of mirth or amusement; it was a dark chuckle that sent shivers down the group’s spines. Zer0 seemed to move to AJ’s side as if he would need to pull her from oncoming danger within moments.

“Just you wait princess, you’re going to regret those words”

The line went silent and the whole group remained on edge until they sighed and headed towards the closest catch-a-ride system without saying anything to AJ about her speaking up against Handsome Jack after he had already threatened them.

“AJ” Gaige started softly as they ordered a bandit technical rather than a runner so that they could all drive together rather than three runners. The teenager sat next to the other girl and took her hand tightly to reassure her that she was okay “Aren’t you scared that he keeps threatening you?”

Salvador and Zer0 watched AJ for her answer as Axton drove with Maya sat next to him, her gun trained on the road ahead as they drove. AJ frowned lightly as she ran her answer through her head to try and make sure that she wasn’t insensitive to her friends with the lack of concern she had for her own safety, as well as make sure she didn’t upset them by wanting to leave. “Yes and no” she admitted “Yes, because Handsome Jack is a terrifying man who will probably never hesitate to torture a Vault Hunter for slights against him. But no because I honestly don’t really plan on staying around Pandora for that long… I’ve never planned to stay on Pandora for very long, my only issue about leaving was leaving all of you”

The whole group stared at AJ in shock, Axton even pulled over for a moment as he and Maya looked behind them to look at AJ after her admittance about leaving Pandora before they even got to the Vault.

“You… you can’t leave us” Gaige told her weakly but also with an air of stubbornness, she couldn’t lose her unofficial big sister after being with her through so much.

“Gaige…”

“She’s right” Axton informed AJ firmly, the rest of the group were nodding in agreement, Axton held up his hand before AJ could argue with him “Right now you can’t leave us AJ… you’ve caused a target to be put on your back by Handsome Jack, a man who has connections everywhere so you’ll have nowhere truly safe. You also can’t leave Pandora easily due to the Helios and the Hyperion moonbase keeping close tabs on travel to and from Pandora and we also haven’t got paid enough to leave and retire”

AJ frowned lightly at the sense that Axton was making and wished that he didn’t make much sense, she would prefer to run but knew that with Handsome Jack against her, she would be dead before she had a chance to leave the space around Pandora.

With a small sigh of resignation, AJ nodded in acceptance to his orders “Okay… I’ll stick around for as long as I’m needed, but you all need to be aware that I will be leaving in the future because I need to.”

Axton nodded lightly as he turned his attention back to the road ahead and started up the technical so that they could get to Overlook. The moment they reached Overlook, they were all surprised to hear Mordecai over their Echoes.

“You found Overlook, huh? Used to be a nice little town until Hyperion took over. Now, everybody there’s got the skull-shivers thanks to Jack’s mining operations. Poor bastards are too sick to leave their homes.” AJ wanted to talk to Mordecai, but she hung up before she could question whether or not he and Bloodwing were okay, as well as whether or not Tina was okay considering he should still be in the Tundra even though Sanctuary had moved.

“You’ll wanna set up the beacon over there… once the moonbase processes our request, you should have a fast travel station”

The group looked between them at the request from Angel before they nodded and started to explore the area, the small group split up as they looked around in the quiet before they moved to the area that Angel had sent them to.

Salvador removed the beacon from his pack and moved to the place that the AI specified, as it opened, Axton and Zer0 went on the defensive when they noticed the beacon signaling for the fast travel station.

“It’s transmitting the supply request now. We’ve just gotta wait for a few minutes and…” Angel was cut off and the Vault Hunters all joined Axton and Zer0 on the defensive when they hear Jack’s voice again.

“Angel, that’s enough. You can stop pretending to help the bad guys now. Angel?” Jack scolded, which made Gaige and AJ look between them with a look of worry and confusion at how the AI was managing to break away from its programming. The technology on Pandora was smart but it shouldn’t be that smart.

“We don’t have long until Jack realizes I’m not helping him anymore. Defend that beacon!”

The team immediately split up and went to different parts of the town to get advantages over the Loaders that were being shot down on Overlook to destroy them. AJ ended up on top of a building with a corrosive sniper as she started to attempt critical hits with Maya backing her up with her siren powers; Gaige was paired with Axton while Zer0 and Sal worked together.

“Now, if you can’t even handle these loaders, you’re really going to disappoint me” Jack spoke over their echoes, but they all ignored him as they continued fighting the waves to protect the beacon that the robots were all aiming for.

After the first few waves of Loaders, they all let out a sigh of relief as they heard a new robotic voice but all groaned in unison as they said that it would take three to six weeks for the system to be processed and sent to them.

AJ quickly ducked down from her building and grabbed as much sniper bullets as she could, she quickly threw some rifle ammo to Gaige as Gaige sent some sniper bullets to her, the group of them were throwing things back and forth until Angel spoke up.

“No, no no… I’ll move some data around, see if I can bump you up in the queue”

“Angel what the hell are you doing?!” Jack’s voice cut across the new Loaders landing as the group moved back to their positions and started fighting again. AJ winced lightly at how stern and annoyed Jack sounded with the AI.

The mixture of responses between Angel and Jack were distracting, so AJ ignored them to the best of her abilities as she continued shooting, she quickly reloaded and landed a critical shot at a Loader that had snuck up behind Salvador before flinching and covering her head as a shield surveyor exploded above her from one of Zer0’s shots.

The bunch of them were starting to get tired of the oncoming Loaders, Surveyors, and the Constructors; as well as being denied and having Angel and Jack fighting against each other to actually gain the Fast-Travel system. Axton was surprised when AJ didn’t speak up when they heard Jack swearing over the radio to get them killed, although, they all felt some amusement when Angel decided to switch the moonbases oxygen supply off so that she could get her way.

“Jack’s getting really frustrated” Gaige called to AJ as she threw her friend some more ammunition, the large number of bots being sent their way was evidence that the Hyperion boss was losing his cool.

“I don’t think he’s happy that his AI is going against us” AJ called down to her as she unclipped a grenade and threw it at the nearing Hot Loader that was heading towards them. All of them slumped a little in relief as they heard that the death threat worked, and the system was heading their way soon.

Maya had to jump out of the way as the Fast travel system dropped to the town, close to where she had been stood, they all slumped where they were stood as the robots had finally stopped being sent down; but they all knew that there would be more if they weren’t careful in the future.

“Fast travel station calibrated. Location Sanctuary is now available for travel” The female robotic voice spoke again, and all six of them decided to quickly drop down to the ground level to regroup and make sure they were all okay.

A clap to her shoulder from Zer0 made AJ grin lightly at the assassin and thanked him for the assist with the surveyor that she hadn’t caught earlier on.

“Go quickly! Use the fast-travel station and get back to Sanctuary!”

“Angel, you and I are gonna have a serious talk”


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has actually been in the works since the very beginning so I'm very happy to finally have it posted.

AJ stayed at the back to give the group cover as the Vault Hunters started to head to Sanctuary, she smiled lightly at Axton as he looked behind him before using the display and disappearing in a burst of pixels, she quickly moved forward and did the same. But, unlike any other fast-travel, she had done before, pain ran through her body as she reappeared but fear washed over her as it dawned on her that she was nowhere in Sanctuary and was alone.

“Well look what the skag dragged in” A familiar voice drawled dangerously from behind her.

AJ spun around on her heel and took a step back as she spotted the famous Handsome Jack, leaning against the door of the room that she had appeared in, the pyromancer looked around her confused until she realized that Angel must have had a hand in separating her from her friends and sending her to Jack. She swallowed and took another step back, she was glad her friends had gone before her, that they were safe.

“What? No witty remarks? No interruptions?” Jack growled as he took a step towards the girl. Now that he could see her properly, he could see that she was younger than she said she was in her file, there was something about her that was niggling at the back of his mind. “And here I was hoping for more reasons to make this hurt more, did I tell you that I finished your gun idea cupcake?”

Biting her lip hard, AJ shook her head as she wrapped her arms around her waist, her eyes watching Jack closely as he took another step forward, his fingers lingering on a gun on his belt, he seemed to be debating something before he glared and pulled the gun out, aiming it at her.

“Wait! Daddy stop!” AJ gasped as she closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to shoot through her, but she didn’t expect a harsh grip on her chin as she was forced to look up, her eyes opening to meet Jack’s mixed gaze. She gulped at the look in his eyes, she could understand that he wouldn’t believe her right away, it had been four years since she last saw him. “If you let me remove my jacket, you’ll see I’m not lying… please”

Unfortunately for AJ, she always had to wear long sleeves, she had the most telling mark when people were sent out to look for her. So she had to hide it, it was something only her family knew about and she had always intended to keep it that way.

Jack didn’t answer her plead, his eyes scanned over her facial features, catching the ice blue eyes that she shared with him and her sister, her black hair used to be very long and just black rather than the mixture she had now, however, he also noticed that the colors she had were his Hyperion colors. But it was easy for him to spot his eldest now that he knew that she was standing in front of him, his mischief-maker had grown up a lot since she ran away.

He stroked her cheek lightly for a moment before his fingers caught hold of her ear in a vice-like grip and he dragged her from the room, ignoring the yelps coming from her. “You are in so much trouble young lady” Jack growled at her, he wanted to hug her and keep her close after four years apart, but he also needed to figure out a way to punish her for running in the first place as well, as the disrespect that she had been showing him since arriving in Pandora, especially since she knew who he was to her while he didn’t know who she was.

Was she told old for his go-to means of correcting her as a kid? Jack had no idea how to handle a nineteen-year-old smartass since she had been away from him and her family for four years, four years where he should have watched her grow up into the strong and fearless woman in front of him. Her freezing during the fight with ‘Wilhelm’ made sense now.

“You and I are going to be having a very long talk tonight young lady, but right now I’m taking you to your sister because she needs to see that you’re alive. She’s come to like your Vault Hunter alter-ego these past few weeks and already hates that I made her send you here this time. Plus, Rhys has enjoyed your smart mouth, he likes you and the kid.”

AJ paled at the mention of a talk, there was always one ending to that comment and it was not appreciated, she groaned lightly at the looks that she was getting as she was dragged through the Hall of Heroes by her ear by her father, it was just lucky that it was late and there weren’t that many people around to see her humiliation.

“I think I might need to be told what’s happening because I know you would never manipulate Angel like she has been saying you have since dropping Sanctuary’s shields,” AJ complained softly as her hand came up to grip her dad’s wrist to try and get him to let her ear go.

“When we’re somewhere secure” Jack promised without hesitation as they reached the elevator to his office, the doors began to close when he released her ear and he sent Angel and Rhys a message to head to the office.

AJ nodded lightly and rubbed her ear gently to try and ease the pain from having her ear tugged, she hoped that the others weren’t too worried about her not appearing in Sanctuary after them, she hesitated for a moment before pulling her own Echo out.

She made a noise of annoyance as her father plucked her Echo out of her hand and clipped it to his own belt.

“You’re not getting in contact with your little bandit friends,” Jack told her firmly “Not yet at least, I need to make it seem like I’m torturing you princess, or something so that they don’t think I’m going soft”

AJ pouted lightly but understood his reasoning, she bit her nail lightly before shuffling sideways until she was pressed against her father’s side and had his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close.

“You smell baby” Jack grimaced but didn’t release her from the one-armed hug.

“You try living as a Vault Hunter on Pandora” AJ grumbled under her breath.

“And who’s fault is that?” He pointed out to her with a raised eyebrow as he made her look at him.

AJ squirmed under the look and looked down at the floor, staying silent at the question, she let a breath out as the doors to the elevator opened to an empty hallway which Jack led her down easily. He opened his office door and AJ groaned and rolled her eyes at how extravagant the office was with the statues of himself, it had gotten worse since she was last there.

“Really daddy?” AJ huffed with fond exasperation and grinned a little at her father’s put out look at the fact that she didn’t think his office was awe-inspiring.

“Don’t you disrespect my amazing office” Jack mock warned her, pointing the gun that he just removed from his belt at her.

“I thought we’ve spoken about shooting people in the office Jack” A male voice spoke from the door and AJ bit her lip to stop from smiling and running to the people in the doorway.

Rhys hadn’t been in their life for long before she ran away, it was a few months after her father became CEO when someone thought it would be fun to trip an intern down the stairs as her father walked up to them. Silence went through the area when Jack caught him, and her father was instantly captured by the looks of the young man as well as the obviously fresh Echo eye that he had. The robotic arm was just the top of the cake when he spotted that it was upgraded with non-regulation updates, he asked the young man if he was okay before putting him back on his feet and sending him on his way.

Fourteen-year-old AJ and eleven-year-old Angel found it extremely funny when their father entered the office in a daze, AJ noticing the look that he wore since it was a look that he had worn around their mother before everything went wrong and she ran away from the family.

A week later, AJ was demanding that her father make the young man his PA so that he wouldn’t kill this one. Her father had a slight temper with everyone but those he classed as family, her aunt Nisha and Uncles Wilhelm and Tim were the only ones safe besides AJ and Angel and recently the young man. AJ and Angel weren’t aware just how bad his temper was, not until just before AJ ran.

It only took another two weeks before AJ met Rhys, she made sure that Rhys met her before he met Angel because Angel would forget that they needed to keep their identities a secret while in front of new people. AJ got to know the man and thought that he was perfect for her dad, which resulted in her scheming and managing to get them into going on a date with each other and the rest was history it seems.

“She’d deserve it” Jack waved off easily as he placed the gun down on the desk.

The two newcomers all looked at him confused before turning to AJ and looking her up and down to try and figure out why she wasn’t dead yet. AJ frowned in thought for a moment before she turned to her father “Please tell me that that wasn’t _really_ Uncle Wil”

“It wasn’t, just a bandit we made into a doppelganger, we’ve done it with Nish too” Jack reassured her and smirked “How do you think you survived getting the Core from him? None of you could have taken your uncle on if it really was him, besides, we stopped him adding more robotics ages ago...”

Jack was soon interrupted as a weight landed on AJ, causing her to hit the floor with a small grunt of pain, she laughed a little as lithe arms wrapped around her shoulders. “Hiya Angel” AJ greeted her sister as she rolled them both over and sat up, grinning as her sister threw her arms around her once again to hold her tight and close.

With a fond smile, AJ pressed a kiss to her sister's hair as she curled into her and then looked up over at Rhys who was stood in the doorway in shock.

“Daddy still keeping you around then, knucklehead?” AJ asked innocently and gained a laugh from Rhys as he moved forward and took her hand, he pulled her and Angel up before pulling both of them into a hug.

“Fortunately,” Rhys responded with a small grin aimed at her as he pulled away from her and made sure to look her over carefully, to check that she was safe and alive in front of them after four years. “You are in so much trouble little lady; do you know how worried we’ve all been? It’s not just your dad that you terrified with your actions, but also your sister, me, Vaughn, your Uncles, and your aunt”

She pulled away and grinned at her family before ducking away from the unhappy looks they were giving her and moved to sit atop her dad’s desk, ignoring the looks from him.

“Your friends are worried” Angel spoke softly, changing the conversation as she looked to her father who nodded for her to go ahead with their plans, she closed her eyes and AJ could feel the build of her little sister’s siren powers. “I can help you with that”

AJ looked at her sister confused as her voice seemed to echo and she realized that she was still linked to her little sister and whatever she did to make them hear her as an AI, she sent an annoyed look to her father who smirked as she rubbed her temple.

“Will you please just hear me out!” Angel pleaded in frustration, she waited for a moment, someone was probably speaking to her. “It’s with me! I’m charging the Vault key!”

AJ looked to her father in confusion this time as he moved to her side and ran his hand through her hair, grimacing at the grease, dirt, and tangles that he encountered but tugged her into his side with a press of his lips to her temple.

“The key naturally charges itself once every two hundred years. Jack is patient but he’s not that patient… he’s been using my power to forcibly charge the key with Eridium. If you find me, you find the Vault key…”

As Angel spoke, AJ tuned her out and finally looked to her dad for an explanation as to what the hell was going on, she glared softly as her father just shrugged lightly before he winced a little when Rhys tapped the back of his head in scolding.

“Losing you made me realize just how deranged I had become since your mother left” Jack explained softly as he moved his hand to the back of his daughters’ neck and rubbed the base of her skull gently to ease the stress running through her “And Rhysie here gave me an idea; choose a successor for the CEO job in Hyperion and give the Vault Hunters a reason to believe that we’re dead. So we decided to put all this into practice… create a team of Vault Hunters, give them a reason to ‘kill’ our family and then we retire, we leave Pandora and maybe return when the fighting calms down”

“You’re welcome” AJ smirked lightly and whined softly at the tug to her ear in response. “So, Uncle Wil is safe? And Aunt Nish and Uncle Timmy will be too?”

Jack smiled softly and smiled even more as Rhys wrapped his arms around his lover’s waist and held him close as they watched Angel carry out their plan. “They are all safe baby, however, all three are definitely not impressed with you running away and they’ll probably be even more upset that you became a Vault Hunter when we’ve always told you not to… the ones that are dying in our place have had their minds implanted with the personalities of us as well as have illusions over them through bracelets and collars, so last minute they’ll be put into place.”

“No matter what happens, do not allow Lilith into my chambers” Angel spoke firmly, the smirk on her physical lips didn’t appear on the image that was still in AJ’s mind. AJ knew that the moment that Lilith heard that, she would be there with or without permission from Roland. “And one final thing… AJ has been caught by Jack, she is alive for the moment, I have no doubts that she will find herself with you again soon, just keep your faith in her”

At the parting words, Angel opened her eyes and smiled brightly as she skipped to her sister and hugged her tight, keeping a hold of her and gaining her sister’s hand through her hair.

“Angel… sweetie… why are you planning on sending your sister back there?” Jack asked, his voice low and with a growling tone which made Angel gulp lightly and look to her dad with wide, innocent eyes.

“Because we need her down there daddy” Angel told him firmly, her sister was dear to her, she had been since before she saved their mothers life by pushing her down to the floor when the turret reacted to Angel’s abilities and nearly killed them all while killing the bandit that had grabbed her. “Not only does she need to help in Opportunity to make sure they don’t accidentally find Uncle Tim, we both know he’d probably wander into danger because he’s unlucky like that, but also, she’ll need to help keep the other group and the older Vault Hunters on the path to make sure our plans are going well… we don’t have to worry about the final aspect anymore”

AJ eyed her sister carefully and bit back a smile, it looked like she and Gaige weren’t the only ones to gain a fondness between them, AJ had known it was her sister since she saw her handle on the Echo and noticed how she struggled to watch her language, an AI wouldn’t struggle with that. She just never changed how she reacted because she needed the group to believe that she assumed Angel was just an AI.

Jack sighed as he rested against Rhys, the taller man hummed next to his ear lightly. “Fine, but Aurora Jacqueline, you’re taking the new gun down there with you, you say you stole it from me. However, first you are going to go and have a shower and we are going to have a family meal because you are staying overnight no matter what and you are going to handle what the whole family aim your way for your decision to run”

The use of her full name made her wince a little before she pouted and nodded in agreement, she hopped off of the desk and allowed her sister to take her hand and take her to the penthouse, followed by her father and Rhys. “Are the family in the penthouse or in a super-secret part of Helios?”

The three Helios inhabitants stayed silent as the elevator from her father’s office closed and started up towards the home that she had lived in since her father became the CEO of Hyperion after the death of Tassiter, there was a reason why AJ despised the older Raiders, and that was because they had made her daddy change and knew the truth of the things that people didn’t believe.

Although, AJ had grown a soft spot for Mordecai of the old Vault Hunters since he had become very attached to little Tina and AJ thought the kid was a hoot, and definitely didn’t deserve the life that she had been given; unfortunately, AJ also knew that by the time her dad’s plans were complete, Tina would probably lose Roland from her life too. She was just glad that she managed to convince Mordecai to stick with the kid rather than going solo again, maybe she could convince her father to keep Mordecai alive.

The doors to the elevator opened and AJ sighed softly as she entered her old home, it hadn’t changed much since she was last home, but she could easily pick out little things that belonged to Rhys rather than her father, and also little things that showed her little sister growing up.

“Honey we’re home!” Jack shouted through the penthouse as Angel giggled and Rhys released her father, moving through the room and dropping down onto the couch as if he lived there, although, he probably did, considering they had been together for four years.

“Wil wants to order pizza, I want Chinese! You three are the deciding vote!” a female voice called back, her voice moving through the corridors until a woman stood in the doorway, her eyes immediately locked onto AJ considering she was wearing her Vault Hunter clothing and still looked a complete mess after their run around Sanctuary where people were blowing up and their hike through the Fridge and Overlook. “Wil! Looks like Jack has a new friend”

AJ’s eyes instantly moved to behind Nisha and she slumped in relief at the sight of her Uncle without a super amount of cyborg conversions, he still had his arm, his eye, and a leg, but he didn’t have the rest of his body turned into a robot.

“Jackie, why do you have a Vault Hunter with you? And one of the ones that thought that they killed me?” Wil inquired, his voice held a little metallic timbre to it like the loader bots, but it wasn’t completely robot. AJ snickered lightly at her dad’s face when Wil called him Jackie and ducked away from the swat that her dad aimed at her in response.

“I honestly hoped that we hadn’t killed you if that removes the worries?” AJ offered with a smile that the two of them should know, the smile that was an equal mixture of innocence and mischief which she had often worn when she was a teenager getting into trouble.

They had become her babysitters whenever her daddy was busy, they looked after her and Angel after her dad took over from Tassiter, they knew all the girl’s tricks, but AJ and Angel also got passed them quite easily with innocence and cuteness. It was Nisha and Wilhelm that taught her how to deconstruct and rebuild a sniper and a rifle, while it was her dad that taught her how to do that with a revolver.

“I’ll be damned” Wil huffed in amusement as he made his way into the main area and tugged the young woman into a tight hug as she chuckled into his chest. “You’ve been right under your daddy’s nose all this time brat?”

“Just about sir” AJ grinned into his chest before she pulled away with a mischievous smile, and looked over at Nisha who was watching them carefully “He only noticed because I called him daddy when he was about to shoot me with the gun I gave him the idea for”

“Your daddy has always been a bit of an idiot when it comes to what’s right in front of him” Nisha commented as she strolled forward and tugged the girl into her arms and held her close, moving her hand to her cheek to stroke her cheek lightly, making sure that she was okay. “Your Uncle Tim is going to be very upset when he sees you, little missy, where have you been?”

“Ran away to Promethea and stole a bunch of stuff from the old Atlas area to make my tech, which you should really look into rebuilding with Rhys as the figurehead daddy, and then I traveled and made a name for myself until Angel sent the invite to be a Vault Hunter of Pandora. I wanted to earn enough to stop fighting altogether, the train blowing up put a dampener on that but I did tell daddy that I was just trying to get enough to get off-planet… and I made friends” AJ explained carefully, her eyes watching her family to make sure that she could run if they meant any threat to her. Nisha tapped her cheek lightly before she pulled away and took her hand.

“Let’s get you a shower and some of my clothes, shall we? What do you feel like eating sweetie?” Nisha asked and gave the rest of the group a look as she started to lead the teenager away from the main room.

\- - -

“Your friends have headed to the Wildlife Sanctuary” Jack informed AJ with glee as she yawned and gingerly sat down on the edge of the desk, frowning lightly as she grabbed the papers from in front of him, ice ran through her veins as she realized what her father’s next idea was.

Panic washed over her and she knew that her next few moves weren’t going to end very well for her, she had spent most of her day with Angel after her father and she had a talk the night before, but now she was watching her friends on the screen as they searched for Bloodwing, she didn’t even know that Blood was missing.

“Daddy, what did you do?” she asked him warily, she didn’t like that look in his eyes.

“Nothing the hunter doesn’t deserve baby” He dismissed her easily, AJ eyed him cautiously before biting her lip and picking up the gun he wanted her to keep, she started to fiddle about with the barrel to check how long it would take to reload. He cackled lightly with glee “Here we go”

AJ quickly jolted forward and grabbed the Echo from her father, she ignored his cursing as he tried to grab the Echo and button back, the growl in his voice was worrying but she ignored it as she panicked. “Axton get that collar off of Blood! Get it off her now! He’s going to make it explode!” She ordered with panic before sending her father a sad look and grabbed her own Echo before bolting out of the office. She grabbed her pack from where they had put it the night before and ran as fast as she could.

She ran through Helios, dodging the security officers her father most likely sent after her, wincing at the odd graze of a bullet, she knew where to go, she would spend hours playing hide and seek as a teenager with Angel; it took her longer than she wanted to, to get to the loading bay and jammed the door with some of her codings, hissing as a shot hit her in the center of her shoulder from the lone soldier that made it through. She shot the man in the knee before hitting him across the face with one of the containers closest to her, before hacking into the fast-travel station and arriving at Overlook again.

AJ almost collapsed in relief before she used the system one last time to appear back in Sanctuary, her heart pounding and her head hurting due to how hard she had been breathing.

“You little **_brat_** , oh ho, just you wait until I get my hands on you again!” Jack broadcasted across the Echo’s, he must have really been pissed off if he didn’t put it to just her, she also knew that her dad was going to seriously kick her ass when she got back home.

Rubbing her face, AJ took a deep breath before stumbling out of the little entrance area and into the area where the engine for Sanctuary was. She pressed her hand to the wound on her shoulder as she continued forward and weakly saluted Roland as he caught sight of her, both Roland and Lilith jumped down from the balcony to help her before she collapsed from dizziness.

“Hola!” AJ grinned weakly “Any sign of the others?”

“Axton!” Roland called out for the Commando and AJ slumped in relief as the man ran out of the doorway, Axton moved forward and immediately lifted AJ from the floor, carrying her into the bunks where the others had passed out, he gently placed AJ down before grabbing a hypo and pressing it to her shoulder.

“Thanks, big brother” AJ thanked him and hugged him gently “How is Blood, is she okay? Did you manage to help her?”

“ _La niña_ is back?” Mordecai’s voice questioned frantically from outside the door and AJ smiled weakly as Axton sat next to her and held her close, her head resting against his shoulder tiredly.

Mordecai rushed into the headquarters from outside, his hair was a mess underneath his bandana, his goggles were a little askew as he rushed into the headquarters in a tizzy, his eyes immediately latched onto AJ, he rushed forward and threw his arms around her, nearly knocking her over in the process as he hugged her tight. “ _gracias cariño, muchas gracias_ ” (thank you, sweetheart, thank you so much)

“ _De nada, mi amigo_ ” (you’re welcome, my friend). AJ mumbled to him as she patted his shoulder lightly, she wasn’t as uncomfortable as she should be with the elder Vault Hunter clutching onto her, she knew the words he spoke because the language he used was one that her father and Uncle Tim were determined for her to learn. “ _como es ella?_ ” (How is she?)

“ _ella está viva, por ahora_ ” (She’s alive, for now). Mordecai responded automatically, he didn’t even bother to switch into the language that he used around the other Vault Hunter’s, even Tina had been learning the language from him, it was nice to hear someone else speaking his mother tongue.

“ _Ella no merecía ser lastimada_ ” (She didn’t deserve to be hurt). AJ admitted lightly as she rubbed his back gently, she had a feeling that he hadn’t really slept since Bloodwing went missing. “You should sleep Mordecai; you’re not going to be any help to her if you’re too exhausted to do anything”

Mordecai shook his head stubbornly, she looked up to Roland and Lilith who were watching their friend with worry, the worry was surprising considering what she knew of the group, Brick leaving because of his rough beliefs and Mordecai leaving Sanctuary not long after. AJ knew that Mordecai wasn’t on Helios when Roland, Lilith and Moxxi betrayed her father, so she wondered if the man agreed with the actions of his friends or if he was just along for the ride, maybe she could convince her father to leave Mordecai, Brick, and Tina, alone.

AJ grimaced lightly before she motioned for Axton to move, she smiled lightly at the Commando as he slipped away and the three of them watched as AJ shuffled around so that she was laying down on the bed and had pulled Mordecai to lay down next to her, he was still clinging to her in gratitude for her saving of Bloodwing and soon ended up drifting off thanks to her hand stroking the back of his neck.

“What did Handsome Jack do?” Roland questioned AJ as he sat down on the empty bed opposite AJ, his eyes drifting to the other Vault Hunters as they slept off the exhaustion from the wildlife preserve.

“He made Angel change the coordinates for my fast-travel” She informed them softly, ignoring the fact that Tannis had approached the group to learn things from them, she knew of Tannis' time with her father and Wilhelm so also had a feeling that the woman wanted to know if she got tortured in the same way. “I arrived in a room, he was really pissed off about everything, he was listing the things he wanted to do to torture me but instead decided that he was just going to kill me with a new gun that he had created, but something took his attention, he didn’t like how I smelled and pushed me into a shower, gave me clothes, so he could kill me and not increase the smell. I waited for him to come back and kill me but nothing happened until this morning when he dragged me to watch the preserve and the fight between you all and Blood, I managed to get loose and steal the Echo’s as well as his new gun before running. But I got shot and chased at the same time.”

“You’re very lucky that Jack didn’t torture you outright” Tannis commented to the girl and shuffled a little before she left the small group, memories fighting to overwhelm her so she went straight to her work.

“I know” AJ mumbled lightly with a small frown, she hated that her father had such a reputation of torture but the darker the reputation, the less chance of someone trying to kill him “Whatever caught his attention must have been important, did anything happen between me disappearing and you going to the preserve?”

“Angel has the key in her AI Command Core” Axton updated her as he sat on the edge of the bed next to Gaige, they were all in danger

“Then I have a feeling that an unauthorized conversation may have caught his attention and saved my life” AJ muttered lightly as she stoked Mordecai’s hair gently to try and help keep him asleep, knowing how much he cared for Blood, he was probably awake from the moment that she went missing. “So... Where are we going next?”


End file.
